Follow Us on Google
By Bimbola Oyesola, [email protected]
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), at the weekend, raised the alarm that 50 per cent of the burden of casualization exists in the downstream oil and gas and banking sectors of the economy and other workplaces.
Corroborating a report published by the Campaign for Democratic Workers Rights, that 45 per cent of the workforce in Nigeria operates as casual workers, the NLC said, with the review of the nation’s labour laws, organised labour was demanding a regulation manual to regularise ‘non-permanent’ staff of banks.
As a matter of urgency, the NLC and the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), have demanded that the law under review should also toughen legislative sanctions on casualisation of labour.
NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, who was represented by the deputy president, Joe Ajaero, at the Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference of NUBIFIE in Lagos, lamented the many unfriendly labour practises in the banking sector, some of which, he said, predated the COVID-19 pandemic.
The congress and the leadership of NUBIFIE had called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Bankers’ Committee to provide solutions to the dysfunctions in the system.
The NLC cited some instances, noting that the last collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the banking sub-sector was done in 2005.
He said, “The CBA was due for review in 2007. Our affiliates in the banking sector wrote to the CBN on the need to review the current CBA. Banks were also written to address the issues of CBA and ‘non-permanent’ staff in their payroll. Sadly, up till date, nothing concrete has come out of those engagements.
“There is also the issue of subjecting bank workers to the stress and strain of outrageous deposit or investment targets. Such pressure has forced many bank workers into very unethical and immoral conduct just to satisfy the expectations of management.
“It is important to make the point loud and clear that these unfair, degrading and dehumanising culture that has become entrenched in our banking system is not only akin to modern-day slavery, but also against conditions precedent for banking operations licensed in Nigeria and certainly offensive to our culture and tradition and laws.”
Wabba, however, said the labour centre’s intervention had yielded some fruit, as the Federal Ministry of Labour in 2020 set up two committees to address the unfriendly labour practices and concerns in the banking sub-sector.
The first committee, he said, was saddled with developing modalities for the review of the subsisting CBA in the banking sub-sector, while the second committee was to develop a regulation manual to address the ‘non-permanent’ staff of banks.
He stated that the two committees on CBA and outsourced staff, chaired by the Minister of Labour and Employment and the Permanent Secretary, respectively, have met a couple of times, expecting that the conclusion of the assignment of the two committees and the release of their reports to the public would be expedited.
“Our expectation is that the report of these two committees should establish follow-up actions on CBN’s earlier directive to banks to shelve further sack of their staff and downward restructuring of wages through surveillance and stiff sanctions against erring banks; constitution of a joint negotiating council for immediate review of the CBA in the banking sector and demand on the CBN to issue a circular to all banks to desist from designating their employees as ‘non-permanent’ staff,” he said.
In his remarks, national president of NUBIFIE, Anthony Abakpa, highlighted some of the challenges confronting the sector, among which is the Bank Employees Act Declaration of Assets.
According to him, even as the union appreciates the rational behind the review of the act, which is to enhance accountability, transparency, integrity and good corporate governance in the banking industry, some aspects of the amendment bill have been tendered to infringe on individual rights and liberties.
He stated that individuals who were not employees of banks, such as children and spouses, among others, should not be subjected to any part of the act, simply because of an affinity to an employee of a bank.
