Odun Odunfa, MD, FAB
The Labour Department has urged management of First Atlantic Bank (FAB) to invite workers, who have been affected by the bank’s recent redundancy exercise to the negotiation table, to address concerns related to their exit package.
The Labour Department gave the directive in response to a letter dated 20th May, 2019, which was submitted to it by John Esiape of Labour Matters Advisor, representative of the affected staff in connection with the illegal manner in which management of FAB axed some employees without negotiating their accompanying exit packages.
Some of these affected staff of FAB include pregnant women, nursing mothers and workers, who are indisposed.
According to the Labour Department, management of FAB officially informed it about a redundancy exercise that was expected to affect some workers of the bank.
This was after workers had been informed of the impending exercise at a meeting with management.
“Consequently, management was advised to negotiate with the affected workers on the matter of their redundancy package and other terminal benefits in line with Section 65 (2) (4) of Act 651.
Section 65 of the Labour Act states that employers during such exercises could only negotiate with employees but not ex-workers.
The affected workers were denied entry into their offices when they reported to work on 2nd May, 2019.
“We, therefore, wish to entreat management of First Atlantic Bank (FAB) to comply with this provision of the law by inviting the affected workers or their representative to the negotiation table, if concerns have been raised by the affected workers through their representative in the person of Mr John Esiape.”
In his correspondence with the Labour Department, Mr Esiape revealed that “at a meeting with management representatives on 14th May, 2019, we advised the bank to unconditionally restore the employee status of the supposedly affected staff as a pre-requisite for meaningful negotiations, which negotiations by law and practice, were not expected to be conducted under duress.”