By MICHAEL EBOH
…Bank blames contract staff for crisis
Staff of Enterprise Bank Limited, weekend, staged a protest at the corporate head office of the bank, disrupting activities at the bank.
The staff, numbering about 200, barricaded the entrance to the head office, carrying placards with various inscriptions and chanting solidarity songs amidst tight security by officers of the Nigerian Police Force who were on hand to maintain law and order.
The staff, mainly in the junior cadre, accused the management of the bank of reneging on the agreement it had with staffers of the bank, despite several months of negotiations and discussion.
In reaction to the protest, the bank blamed the crisis on the staff of First Spring Franchise Services, FSFS, a human resource service provider of Enterprise Bank Limited, saying the staff of the company reneged on an agreement brokered by the bank with their organisation to disrupt operations at the bank's Head Office.
According to Mrs. Sola Longe-Okenimkpe, Head, Corporate Communications, Enterprise Bank, following a long negotiation involving representatives of national officers of Nigeria Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees, NUBIFIE and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the bank and the FSFS representatives, agreements were reached as to matters of dispute, which the workers later decided to renege on.
She said, "It became a surprise to management of the bank that the FSFS staff will recant and resort to picketing the financial institution, disallowing staff and customers access to the offices and banking halls respectively, while carrying placards with denigrating remarks.
"Appeals to the picketing staff by the management of the bank for more time to look at the issues have fallen on deaf ears as they have continued with the illegality which began without due notice of the required minimum of seven days."
However, Mr. Moruf Adesanya, Chairman, NUBIFIE, Enterprise Bank Chapter, said the decision of the staff to embark on the protest is as a result of the refusal of the management of the bank to honour the agreement between both parties, adding that the management failed to honour a meeting, scheduled for Friday, October 5, 2012, between the staff and the bank.
