Banks can’t sack more than 5 staff without approval, says CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given a stern warning to all banks that they must seek its approval if they must sack more than five staff. This was stated in the communique released by the Bankers Committee after its meeting on Friday.

The committee, in a circular signed by Director, Financial Markets Department, CBN, Angela Sere-Ejembi, emphasized that all banks should send sample of Contract Letter issued to outsourced staff + SLA  with the company being used to run outsourced staff.

It stated, “Banks should note and be guided by the CBN circular in respect of laying off staff that is more than five. This requires apex bank’s notification and approval going forward.”

The committee noted that while it was working on how to reduce the level of job losses in the sector, there would always be reasons people would have to be sacked from their workplaces.

It explained that while the decision to sack bank workers had elicited a lot of sentiments from both the public and private sectors of the economy, the banks understood the implications of having to relieve workers of their jobs in view of the current economic situation in the country.

Recall that several banks have sacked several thousands of their staff. While some of the workers were served their dismissal letters without severance packages, others were not that lucky, as they were not informed officially but got blocked from accessing the bank’s server.

For instance, most of the Ecobank Nigeria Plc workers under the auspices of the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), shut down the headquarters of the bank following the disengagement of about 1200 workers in July last year.

The workers, with their placards, took to the bank’s head office to protest their disengagement, insisting that the bank should pay their commensurate benefits.

Ecobank is not the only financial institution involved in mass sack. In most cases, some of the banks described the exercise as ‘right sizing’. But the concept could be confusing, as they recruit more staff shortly after the exercise.