By Adedapo Adesanya
Banks cannot terminate the employment of more than five staff without a prior notice to the Central Bank of Nigeria, a communique released by the Bankers Committee after its meeting on Friday, February 21 in Abuja has announced.
The committee, in the circular signed by Director, Financial Markets Department, CBN, Mrs Angela Sere-Ejembi, emphasised that all banks should send sample of Contract Letter issued to outsourced staff + A service-Level Agreement (SLA), a commitment between a service provider and a client, with the company being used to run outsourced staff.
“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 communique said.
The Bankers’ Committee had said the mass sacking in banks which had often occurred at will, would be reduced in the shortest time possible with its intervention.
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.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the staff strength of banks reduced in the third quarter of 2019 as 2,929 staff were relieved of their work. Latest figures show that there are a total of 101,435 staff in deposit money banks as against the 104,364 recorded in the second quarter of the year. This represents a 2.81 percent decrease.
