AS staff of the United Bank of Africa started the new year with lots of cheers, unknowingly to over 3000 staff, they were to be “asked to resign or be sacked” the following day just as the year began on 3rd January.
Although the controversy has died down, criticism and anger continues to trail the dismissal of the former employees of the UBA who claimed the bank terminated their employment without prior notification.
Most of the affected workers contacted by THE ICIR, refused to speak for the fear that the bank could take legal actions against them.
Nonetheless, Kingsley Omah (not real name) one of the retrenched workers was willing to narrate his experience.
“The manner and way in which we were sacked, was orchestrated in such a way that if workers publicly condemn the bank, they might hold it against them as a breach of contract,” he said.
“I do not have any issues with UBA, my only annoyance was with the way it was done.”
The banker who worked for the organisation for 10 years as a retail manager said the dismissal came as a shock to some who had resumed work that year.
The bank replaced the old workers with new staff few days later.
The age of the newly employed staff range between 23 and 26 years old.
Kingsley is of the opinion that the bank was discriminatory and could get away with it as a private firm with very limited government interference.
“It is inconsiderate of a bank to sack workers like they are getting rid of spoilt goods. These new persons were recruited in November and the same hands that they (UBA) claimed are not okay for the job trained the new ones.
He bemoaned the “inhuman act “of the UBA group and top management who had on the 3 January sent an email through its in- house communication channel to the staff affected by the new corporate right sizing to wait after work hours for a briefing.
“Until 9 pm that day, some of us were yet to be briefed on why we had to wait. At the end of the wait, we were told by the top management that we have been “advised to resign in place of getting sacked!”
https://twitter.com/GbengaD20686569/status/1216602612310663169?s=20
Kingsley told THE ICIR that the bank had played on the fragility and vulnerable state of the workers who had no other option but to write a resignation letter to save face.
“We had no other option, especially if one still has the intention of working in the banking sector or even the corporate world. No one wants to tell any prospective employer that they were sacked from their previous positions or asked to leave by the company, no matter the circumstances,” he said.
Good compensation was paid to the affected employees and employees weren't held hostage till late in the night and compelled to write resignation letter and account were not liened and outrageous 10% tax weren't deducted so why's UBA different
— balogun sunday emmanuel (@sunemmy018) January 12, 2020
Another affected staff of the UBA identified simply as Dammy corroborated the narrative of Kingsley, saying UBA offered its staff loans and made them pay an additional two per cent insurance fee.
According to him, the insurance fee was to be a financial buffer for workers in case of an unforeseen eventuality that might lead to an involuntary loss of job or inability to pay off the loans borrowed.
However, upon the “forced resignation”, all entitlements of the sacked staff including the insurance benefits and outstanding loan balances were posted to the staff accounts held by the bank.
In light of this new development, the former workers said the insurance benefits were also taxed with previous funds in their accounts with UBA.
“I am one of the affected staff and. I can say we were asked to resign by past 9 pm, and were under threat of not being paid any entitlements if we fail to. It was a shock we were not given notice. We are fathers and mothers for God’s sake. What about the loan issued to us for which insurance charge has been deducted and credited to an insurance company own by Tony Elumelu which states that it will cover in the effect of involuntary loss of a job. Now they have debited our account for the loan, saying we resigned. Was the resignation voluntary? No. Is this a fair treatment. Why must the rich oppress the masses all the time? This is just three points out of all they did that is wrong,” the former staffer said.
The ICIR learnt that the insurance fees were deducted from the staff and credited to an insurance company owned by Tony Elumelu, UBAGroup Chairman.
Other ex-staff of the institution that had “resigned” within the period told The ICIR that they could not speak freely without incurring legal actions from the company since they had tendered the resignation letters “as advised” by the bank to avoid getting a termination letter.
“It is all in the past now, life goes on. I don’t want to talk about it,” a former staffer said.
The UBA Group on 4 January in what some people said an attempt to launder its image, announced the employment of 4000 new staff and the promotion of over 5,000 with salary increment. But the bank has since remained mute on the public outrage over the mass sack on social media.
Severance payment and termination notice
As stated by the UBA Group, “termination benefits are within twelve months and are accounted for as short term benefits.”
Against unfounded claims in some quarters that the bank did not pay the terminated workers, The ICIR learned that the bank provided severance pay for all affected workers through the credit alerts received by them.
Kingsley whose initial salary payment was N73,900 excluding extra packages worth N13,000 received the sum of N635,000 after 10 years of service to the bank as a retailer, fund transfer and customer service agent.
However, the payment was slashed by 9.8 per cent after N62,000 tax due was deducted by the bank.
Although, based on the provisions of paragraph 26 of the Third Schedule to PITA, “any compensation for loss of employment” is exempted from personal income tax, unfortunately, section 6 of CGTA imposes capital gains tax (CGT) at 10 per cent on “any capital sum derived by way of compensation for any loss of office or employment”.
In terms of termination of a contract, the Nigerian Labour Act stipulated a contract shall be terminated in accordance with the provisions under section 11 which posits that “Either party to a contract of employment may terminate the contract on the expiration of a notice given by him to the other party of his intention to do so with the notice of one month, where the contract had continued for five years or more.”
According to findings from the reporter, as part of its conditions of service, the bank requires staff to give the institution a two- months notification before terminating her or his employment with the bank. However, provisions concerning the guidelines that would guide it [UBA Group] should they want to sack workers is unclear.
Laying-off workers without notice as stipulated by the law have long become a trend identified with Nigeria financial institutions as termination letters are often served in lieu of notice for “security reasons”.
The UBA Group presently runs its operation in 20 African countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States with a presence in France with a total of 12,909 staff out of which 9,572 are employed in Nigeria and are Nigerians.
National Labour Congress
Emmanuel Ugboaja, General Secretary of the National Labour Congress who spoke to The ICIR, said that the union was yet to get a formal report from the National Union of Banks and Insurance and Allied financial Institutions hence cannot intervene since no complaint of wrongdoing has been brought to their notice.
Ugboja, however, condemned the actions of private firms and cooperations that prey on gullible Nigerian by getting them to sign terms and conditions that are “highly unfavourable” to them and “due to the simple fact that people just want to keep busy.”
“We can not progress in this country if people keep quiet when things are going downhill. If the staff think their rights in any form have been violated, let them as a group under a union or as individuals covered by the laws of the Nigerian labour act make a formal report and stop telling stories.
” They should have refused to resign and instead insist that the bank sack them. Don’t sign what you don’t know,” Ugboaja said.
Nonetheless, he told the reporter that a thorough inquiry is the only way they can verify if there was any breach of contract.
“But it is quite disappointing, really. It is unfortunate that some of these ‘veterans’ that have worked for private firms often are not in possession of their letter of employment, They take these things for granted.”
UBA goes mute
The ICIR approached the senior staff of various UBA branches for comments, but none was willing to speak.
Subsequently, the Centre contacted the bank headquarters through the official number listed on its website, but could not get through. Instead, the repeated automated response was” all services are busy”.
An “inquiry ” email also sent to the bank was never responded to until the time of the publication of this article.
Meanwhile, one of the bank’s top officials who spoke to The ICIR anonymously confirmed that the bank paid all the affected workers, but sacking them came as a surprise to many.
He said that it is unlikely the affected staff would take any legal actions, as they “have decided to leave the rest in God’s hands”.
Postscript: This copy was updated on Friday, March 20.
We we’re used and dumped after working with the UBA for several years and we were giving N635k, to COMPENSATE us,please is the money meant for air ticket or what.We were deceived in believing that we were waiting for promotion letter but it was sacked letter that we received at the beginning of the year,is that not wickedness.SOME MIGHT HAVE DECIDED TO LEAVE THE CASE BUT UBA SHOULD MEET US IN Court AND DEFEND the INJUSTICE melted on US.MOST OF THE MEDIA HOUSES KEPT QUITE BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN BRIBED BY TONY ELUMELU.IS THERE NOBODY IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY THAT IS WILLING TO STAND FOR THE Truth.
Please the govt of our great country should not allow Tony slapped us and get away with just because we are mere masses,he have served UBA for more than a decade,yet he referred to us his loyal employee ‘Toxic Staff’, please what have we done to him and also why we were forced to resign.More than 3000 to resign at the same day willingly,is not.Justice must prevail
Hmmmmm, for every involuntary resignation the employer own a responsibility to settle his employee with good benefit. However Uba must pay off his sacked staffs that serve the bank for over 13 years of restless service and good commitment that took UBA from 13 position of KPMG rating to 4 position now amongst all the banks in Nigeria today and no 2 intern of profitability. Tony Elumelu pls pay them their benefit oooo.
UBA management treat their staff like they are not human being and this must be stop and UBA should be brought to book for this evil act.
This act is a disgrace to the bank (UBA) that call themselves giant of Africa, you people are nothing but a prey in the sight of Almighty. Just to assure that, no man on earth will go unpunished if you do, your generations will pay for it one day.
Uba must be brought yo book yo curb others doing same because their behavior is fraudulent and lack of integrity. Why must you called the sacked staff toxic inputter and disconnected after serving your red bank for over 13 years without paying them their benefit, this is not done anywhere.
UBA is not a good bank, they preached empathy but they don’t have one. After all the long suffering for years without promotion,all we got was to resign. Alex Alozie was the mastermind behind the sack, he used us to get his promotion after six months of joining UBA. Too bad.
This can only happen in a banana republic.All these staff can get from you after more than a decade of meritorious service is to labelled them as toxic inputters, so sad
UBA Executive Management Staff are Cow-Boys. They act scripts without minding the consequences. You approved loan for staff and made the staff to pay additional 2% as insurance fees in case if the staff was unable to settle the loan. Now the same management sacked the staff and posted all the entitlements of the sacked staff into the staff salary account including the outstanding loan balance. Now you started pursuing the staff to payoff the negative position in the account. Please is this NOT a FRAUDULENT and INHUMAN ACTION? What happened to the 2% insurance fee that the staff paid ? Was it not the bank that sacked the staff unjustly? Can’t the bank make recourse to the insurance company to honour the risk they took? You see, these people are THIEVES wearing suits and ties. Government should probe all of them. They have failed humanity with their greed. One thing is certain, they will die one day. Where is Adegbite of Wema bank. Where is Adekanye of Commerce Bank? Have they not gone? It is a matter of time. They will all perish and go to the grave for worms to see more food to eat under the Earth.
Why would a bank terminate its worker’s appointment without prior notice of one month, goes on media and called that same worker defamatory name thereby causing damages to the staff. UBA has just gone too far because they feel we have no labour right in this country.. Our govt does not care about the welfare of its citizens if not UBA must have been called in for interrogation and made to go through sanctions so as other organizations in future will not repeat such but no, our govt because they eat and dine with same people cannot do the right thing. May God fight for the oppressed and less privileges and justice must be served.
What UBA did was wicked. Many were sacked on Dec. 24, 2019 and replaced with green horns. Go to their branches now and you see green horns attending to customers. They sacked efficient workers but retained top executives who feed fat on the bank. It’s a big shame.
Who do we actually run to when such things happen? There are no laid down procedure to fighting or demanding for your right when it comes to private employment.
I am one of the affectef staff and 1) i can say We were asked to resign by past 9pm on the 3rd under threat of not being paid any entitlements if we fail to. 2) it was a shock we were not given notice we are fathers and mothers for God sake. 3) What about the loan issued to us which insurance charge’s as been deducted and credited to an insurance company own by tony elumelu which states that it will cover in the effect of involuntary loss of job. Now they av debited our account for the loan saying we resigned. Was d resignation voluntary? NO. Is this a fair treatment. Why must the rich oppress the masses all the time. This is just 3 point out of all dey did that is wrong.
UBA lacks integrity and thats the reason they cant talk. They can pay celebrity billions but staff that worked hard for them for years cannot be paid. The meagre they paid was charged with 10% ex gratia, the NHF was not remitted, the loan that they collected insurance for was also taken from the same amount they paid. So they practically left the staff empty.