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Laid-off casual workers accuse CBN of non-payment of benefits

By BusinessNews Staff on March 10, 2015

Over 500 temporary members of staff who were disengaged in 2008 have accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of non-payment of terminal benefits despite a resolution of the House of Representatives asking that the payments be made.

The representative of the workers, Mr. Bulus Daniel, in a “save our soul” message to President Goodluck Jonathan and the members of the National Assembly, lamented that the CBN has still refused to pay terminal benefits to the retrenched staff who had put in between five and 20 years of service.

Speaking with THISDAY, Daniel said the CBN paid N116,000 to the a temporary staff member who had served the organisation below 10 years, while N232,000 was paid to those who had put in above 10 years.

He disclosed that he was employed as a casual security personnel in 2001 and was with the organisation until his appointment was terminated without cause in 2008.

“But the law says a person should be confirmed after he has put in six months,” he noted.

A resolution of the House, following consideration by its Committee on Public Petitions in October 2014 directed that the “the Central Bank should reconsider and review the exit benefits of the petitioners and together with the petitioners work out the best formula with a view to bringing it to parity and conformity with the Central Bank’s Condition of Service,”

“…The Central Bank should examine with fairness the qualifications and skills of the disengaged staff and re-engage as permanent staff those of them with requisite skills and who wish to be recalled.”

The resolution of the House also condemned the practice of employing casual workers by the CBN and other commercial banks in Nigeria as a way to “minimise costs and maximise profit without recourse to the express prohibition of such mode of employment under the existing Labour Act.

A copy of a letter signed by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu A. Maikasuwa, communicating the resolution of the House to the Governor of the central bank was stamped as “Received” by the Security Services Department of the CBN, Abuja and dated November 25, 2014.

Attempts to get the reaction of the CBN proved abortive as the Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Ibrahim Muazu did not pick calls to his mobile no, nor did he respond to enquiring text messages from THISDAY.

[ThisDay]

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