Banks Now Sack Staff Through Text Messages

An amazing dimension has been introduced to the on-going massive sack of staffers of acquired banks, as one of the acquiring banks is laying-off staff through text messages.

In what is now known as e-sacking, the Human Resource Department of the acquiring bank (identity withheld) is terminating the appointments of affected staffers of its acquired bank, by sending text messages to their mobile phones.

According to Nigerian Compass:

The acquired banks and their acquiring financial institutions are: Oceanic Bank, acquired by Ecobank; Finbank, acquired by FCMB; and Intercontinental Bank, acquired by Access Bank.

One of such text messages sent by this particular acquiring bank and obtained by the Nigerian Compass, reads:

“Dear All, Following d current restructuring in (identity withheld) Bank, we regret 2 inform u dt ur service is no longer required. Pls note dt ur letter will be sent 2u soon.”

Investigations revealed that the termination text messages were being sent from the bank's head office, while managers of the bank branches of staffers being disengaged were not given prior notice of the sack of their subordinates.

A victim of such text message terminations, who spoke with the Nigerian Compass, said: “The management of (identity withheld) bank is treating us (employees of acquired bank) with utmost disdain. It's like we are not human beings. They want to flush every one of us out.”

When contacted, an official in the Corporate Affairs unit of the said acquiring bank first denied that such text message terminations were being done, and later expressed complete surprise upon insistence by our correspondent of the incontrovertibility of the claim.

In another development, activities at the head quarters of an acquired bank on Victoria Island, Lagos were paralysed as its workers sacked by the new owner bank protested against payment of paltry sums as severance package.

The acquiring bank, it was gathered, wanted to pay the disengaged staff N40,000 per annum across board.
For someone who has spent eight years, this means his or her take home severance package would be a paltry N320,000.
This rate, it was learnt, was later slightly improved on, such that an employee who had spent 17 years with the former bank, ended up being paid just over N900,000, which translates to N53,000 per annum.

An affected banker in a text message to the Nigerian Compass said: “It's rather unfortunate the way this banking saga went. Many people are being sacked every day. In the former (XYZ) bank as I speak, letters are flying all around and the payoff could not be heard of.

“How do u tell of a staff that has spent over 3 years collecting 300k out of which he has a loan of over 400k? I believe the so-called "reform" is more of politics. All I know is that posterity shall judge.”“Ecobank had of recent sacked over 1,250 workers following its acquisition of Oceanic Bank.