Access Bank Ghana
Management of Access Bank Ghana Limited is reeling under pressure to pay the severance packages of some 66 employees it sacked under reported bizarre circumstances.
It follows a ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC) against the bank after almost five years of litigation.
Issues
The 66 former employees of the bank, who worked for the defunct Intercontinental Bank Ghana (IBG) Limited, were sacked when they reportedly refused to sign absorption letters which contained terms different from the existing ones before the merger of IBG and Access Bank. This included writing a credit test as part of conditions for their re-engagement by Access Bank.
Obviously unhappy with the new terms, the affected staff, through their lawyer, demanded negotiations over their severance package with management of the bank.
Not only did the bank refuse to negotiate with the staff, the management was said to have denied the staff access to their offices to work, citing their refusal to sign the absorption letters.
Subsequently, the ex-staff were issued with letters with the heading, ‘Resignation,’ in which the bank stated that they (staff) were deemed to have resigned due to their refusal to sign the letters.
Ruling
On Thursday, November 10, 2016, the NLC consequently directed the management of Access Bank to pay severance package to the ex-staff in accordance with Section 65 of the Labour Act (Act 651).
To date some of the staff who took this action, have still not secured employment.
During the course of the case, a number of the petitioners alleged that Access Bank consistently wrote poor references to their new employers anytime they secured jobs.
Some of them also claim to have suffered poor credit ratings reports from the Credit Reference Bureau as their outstanding staff loans had been reported by the bank as default loans.
Several attempts were made by the Access Bank to obtain an out-of-court settlement but the bank pulled out abruptly to the surprise of the ex-staff.
At a point, the NLC had to write to the bank’s lawyers, warning them against the several requests for adjournments.
Effect
With this ruling, the affected workers can now move on with their careers.
Indeed, it is the expectation of the ex-workers that the bank would fulfill payment of the redundancy award as directed by the NLC.
There are about other suits pending at the law courts against Access Bank, all of which were occasioned by the merger with IBG in 2012, BUSINESS GUIDE has learnt.
Sources said that lawyers for the bank yesterday rushed to the NLC to raise issues with the ruling and its likely effect on the Initial Public Offer (IPO) which could be extended for another two weeks.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
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