Following the news of the retrenchment of 200 staff of Skye bank today,
the federal government has released a statement threatening to sanction
banks and telecommunication companies, that fail to comply with its
order to suspend retrenchment. FG on June 4th, prevailed on Banks and
Insurance companies to halt retrenchment exercises for now due to the
hard economic realities.
The Minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige
gave the warning at the 105th session of the International Labour
Congress (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland today June 7th.
“The federal government gave the licences to the banks to operate and if
its directives are not adhered to the licences will be withdrawn if the
need arises. We will go a step further if they continue. We know what
to do. They need to comply. They need to come to the negotiation table.
We halted the spate of sack in the oil industry and we succeeded. Even
if you are going to lay off, there is a way to declare redundancy, there
is a process. Section 20 of the labour act says it. You must call the
unions and discuss with them. You don’t just treat them as slaves in
their own country and you want us to keep quiet. We want them to
maintain the status quo. As far as I am the minister of labour, I will
protect the interest of workers; same to the telecommunication
companies, they are also talking about compiling lists without
discussing with anybody.”