Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc has said allegations of financial impropriety and anti-labour activities levelled against it by the chapter of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions are false.

Workers under the aegis of ASSBIFI have been picketing the headquarters of the financial institution for about four weeks now, alleging that it wrongfully terminated the employment of 400 workers without paying gratuities or severance packages. They also want the management to produce evidence of tax payments as well as pension deposits.

But according to Union Homes, the allegations are part of an attempt to disrupt the company’s operations and coerce it into adopting an ineffectual and impracticable state of existence.

The Managing Director, UHSL, Pearl Kanu, explained in a statement made available to our correspondent on Sunday that not only were the allegations false; the strike and picketing the company’s head office were illegal.

She said, “As is the case with corporate entities from time to time, Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc is reorganising for greater efficiency. The company is striving to improve its processes, manage its costs and, at the same time, increase productivity. Our goal is to be a more effective organisation, providing valued services to our customers and supported by a competent workforce.

“Unfortunately, our efforts to create a better organisation have been met with resistance by a very vocal and deliberate minority. This minority has, regrettably, seized and exploited the opportunities available to it in an attempt to disrupt operations and somehow coerce the company into adopting an ineffectual and impracticable state of existence.

“The strategy adopted by this small group has included a continued illegal strike action, the locking of the company’s head office gates in order to prevent the peaceful ingress and egress of our committed, majority staff and valued customers, as well as the levelling of several falsehoods and deliberate misrepresentations against the company.”

Concerning the allegation that Union Homes transferred N26bn to its parent company, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, in 2011 to help the bank recapitalise, Kanu said the facts were public knowledge.

She said, “The facts behind the recapitalisation of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc are public knowledge; it is on record that Union Bank’s current capitalisation is based on a 65 per cent holding by Union Global Partners Limited, a 20.04 per cent holding by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria and a 14.96 per cent holding by a diverse group of shareholders.”

While noting that many of the allegations made were directed at its former board and management, Kanu said, “Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc categorically states that the assertion that nearly 400 members of staff have been disengaged since October 2012 is false.”

She explained that it was also not true that funds meant to be paid into individual workers’ retirement accounts had been embezzled, saying, “The factual position is that Union Homes is presently waiting for the necessary National Pension Commission’s approval required to effect the disbursements and will do so once that approval is received.”

ASSBIFI had at a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday called on the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation to take over the management of the company to prevent it from “imminent collapse and right the wrongs of the past in order to steady the sinking ship of the organisation.”

The President, ASSBIFI, Union Homes Chapter, Mr. Sola Tokede, explained that the association decided to picket the office of the company after series of efforts to have its concerns addressed failed.

Source: Punch (by Simon Ejembi)