Access Bank literarily broke the bank in terms of redundancy to Intercontinental Bank employees in Nigeria, and is afraid to replicate same in Ghana, since those payments largely affected its purse.
Access Bank Plc. has been dragged to the National Labor Commission (NLC) in Ghana by 70 former employees of Intercontinental Bank of Ghana (IBG) who are yet to receive their severance package, but Access Bank says 395 out of the total 448 employees of IBG had accepted their absorption into Access Bank Ghana, and were now fully absorbed into the combined entity. It therefore considers the said employees as having resigned since they failed to sign the ‘Absorption Letter’ offered IBG employees by the March 20, 2012 deadline.
“Although all IBG employees have been offered job opportunities with no diminution in their terms and conditions of service, we are aware that a few have not accepted the offer, and have petitioned the National Labor Commission demanding severance pay,” a statement by Access Bank read in part.
Access Bank completed a hostile takeover of IBG in very questionable circumstances, in a move, industry watchers described as “reprehensible” and “obscene”, and the new entity has been battling an avalanche of litigation which has raised fundamental questions about the relevance of the merger. At the time of the merger, Access Bank assured all IBG employees that “there will be no diminution in the terms and conditions of service of any employee. Our intention is to ensure that ultimately, the terms and conditions of the employees are harmonized with the terms and conditions of Access Bank…You have been absorbed into Access Bank Ghana in accordance with your existing contract of service with Intercontinental Bank Ghana,” noted a letter that was circulated to IBG staff following the merger.
The IBG staffs were given March 19, 2012, to sign onto the new deal, failure to which they would be considered as having resigned their positions. The deadline was later extended to March 20, 2012. However, eyebrows were raised when it was discovered that in the last two paragraphs of the same letter, Access Bank stated that: “Employment shall also be governed by the terms and conditions in the staff handbook, as may be amended from time to time and any other policy (ies) that may be in force in the bank.”
According to IBG’s policy handbook on redundancy, in the circumstance of a merger, its staff would be entitled to three months gross salary for each year served. Further comparing the Human Resource (HR) policy of IBG to that of Access Bank Ghana, the staff discovered vast differences. Assuming correctly that they were going to suffer diminution of their terms and conditions of service, the aggrieved workers wrote to the management of Access Bank Ghana to seek further clarification on the matter.
In a swift response to the concerns of the staff, the new Managing Director of Access Bank, Dolapo Ogundimu, sent a mail headlined: ‘Statement on Employee Integration Issues’ dated March 19, 2012, explaining the rationale behind the bank’s approach, and states in part: “The purpose of this approach is to ensure that the employees are not worse off as a result of the merger process…On behalf of Access Bank, I wish to assure all employees that there will be no diminution in the terms and conditions of service of any employee. Our intention is to ensure that ultimately, the terms and conditions of the employees are harmonized with the terms and conditions of Access Bank,” the letter in part clarified.
But, some IBG staff argued that the response from their would-be employer was not satisfactory, and could be considered as misrepresentation of facts, and therefore, decided not to sign onto the new deal offered them until their concerns were addressed.
The aggrieved workers, Huhuonline.com learnt, again petitioned their would-be employers, but got no response, and so sought the services of a lawyer who later wrote to Access Bank to grant audience to the petition filed by the IBG staff, but to no avail. With no response from Access Bank Ghana, the aggrieved workers petitioned the NLC, based on the advice of their lawyer to seek redress, but before the NLC would hear the matter, the bank went ahead and disabled all the profiles of the 70 aggrieved workers.
Hit by the unilateral decision of the bank, the aggrieved workers went back to the NLC to update them on what had transpired between them and their would-be employer. The NLC, upon hearing the matter, subpoena Access Bank, and ordered the bank to reinstate the workers. “The Commission, having met representatives of the parties on Wednesday, 28th March 2012, acknowledges that the substantive complaint of “Redundancy” filed by the aggrieved workers will be handled through due process and until the matter is determined, the status quo remains,” the NLC ruled. It added: “The parties are reminded that once there is a complaint filed by petitioners against their respondent in respect of termination, which they view as “unfair”, they are obliged to stay all action until the matter is determined by the Commission. Please refer to section 133 (2) of Act 651. Thus, the workers shall continue to be employees of the bank.”
Having had a ruling on the said issue, the aggrieved workers reported to work on March 29, 2012, but after a short meeting with the new management, they were advised in their own interests to vacate the premises of the bank. The aggrieved workers left as ordered and again informed the NLC about their ordeal through their lawyer. While the group contemplated their next move, the bank wrote to them drawing their attention to the fact that they were deemed to have officially resigned from the bank for failing to sign onto the “Absorption Letter” which deadline had elapsed.
Alarmed by this ordeal, they went back to the NLC informing it about the bank’s behavior, and the NLC in turn gave the bank fourteen days to respond to the query brought against it. A statement from Access Bank in reaction to media reports on the aggrieved workers ordeal said: “Access Bank has maintained a fair, objective and transparent process during the business combination, in line with international best practice… As such, the Bank remains committed to working with the Labor Commission and all other relevant bodies to uphold the laws of the land, and address any residual issues arising from the merger,” it added.
Source: Huhuonline.com
