By Anthony Otaru, Abuja
Experts in the financial sector have decried the ‘obnoxious contract staff policy’ currently adopted by banks to engage casual workers to run their businesses.
They lamented that despite declaring huge profits after tax yearly, banks still have 70 per cent of the workers in the contract/casual staff category
ThisNigeria learnt that over 70 per cent of banking sector workers who are tagged contract or casual staff are paid paltry sums of between N30,000 and N80,000 monthly.
The National President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Oyinkami Olasanayo, recently confirmed on a national television programme that over 75 percent of workers in the banking sector are casual staff.
She lamented that while casual workers remain the majority in Nigeria’s banking sector, no law specifically protects them.
Olasanoya, the Second National Deputy President of the Trade Union of Nigeria, called on the government to protect casual workers in the country.
Corroborating Olasanoya’s position, Akeem Akinwale, a professor of Employment Relations and Labour Studies at the University of Lagos, expressed dismay that Nigerian workers, especially in the banking sector, were being exploited and paid poor salaries.
He said the poorly paid workers are also pushed to close late.
He said, “Though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) discourages the excessive use of casual workers in the sector, most banks have yet to make amends and have continued to cut corners.”
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Akinwale said the CBN’s directives worked on paper, noting that banks were cutting corners by engaging casual workers through a third party.
He said that the law stipulates that contract staff should be converted to full staff within a period, but less than 10 percent of them have been converted so far.
“For the business to go on in their favour. The workers on contract are terminated within a stipulated period, usually two years, and re-organized fresh after that to avoid converting their appointment to full staff status; this has even made the whole thing a mess.
“Speaking about the long hours the contract staff are subjected to, he said no staff is expected to work more than eight hours per day, adding that organizations must pay for overtime for those working above the stipulated hours,” he said.
He also revealed that the law applies to both government and private employees, even as he called on the contract staff to unionize and speak out against the illegal treatment they are facing.
For his part, Prof Akpan Ekpo Akpan of the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State said it is unfortunate that the contract staff in the banking sector are being exploited, as some work for eight to nine years without being confirmed as bank staff.
Unfortunately, he said the casual workers are paid very low salaries compared with their work for the establishments.
“This has made some of them go into doing dubious businesses, including defrauding customers on many occasions for survival while only a few staff earn very high salaries- this is very unfair. Due to the poor pay, they get into several shady deals; that’s why some of the dubious cases of theft or fraud the customers face today are mostly caused by contract staff,” he lamented.
The professor of economics suggested that bank management should pay their staff well or let them go and look for something else.
“This has become imperative because, as contract/casual staff, they don’t have access to pensions/gratuities, death benefits, or even leave allowances, and this is unacceptable because they are humans as well.
“And we should not forget because contract staff cases are not supposed to be found in the banking sector because it is the sector that holds the economy of the nation; you’re, therefore, putting the industry and the economy at a very dangerous risk of economic collapse if you fail to settle this matter once and for all.
“Worst still, the recruitment process for contract staff looks shady, more so because most people recruited today come from different backgrounds in the arts, engineering, and sciences instead of those from business studies. This has made it more complex.
“People are recruited so long that they are taught how to manipulate computers for operation. They know little about the core values that are key to banking operations.
“Unfortunately, they are also sent to the customers’ service department, where they can access customers’ details, making it easy to defraud at will. This needs to stop.
“When you hear all these scammers calling customers regarding the blockage of ATMs or things like that, you find out that they collaborate with the bank staff to perpetuate fraud somehow.
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“For me, the solution is that the bank management should confirm their contract staff or let them go elsewhere to look for a living. The Bank Unions under Labour, the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], and other stakeholders must rise up to condemn and discourage the continuation of this menace.
“Unfortunately, the unions’ point of view is that the contract staff tenure should not exceed six months, so you can see that the unions are at fault on this matter even as the CBN must take concrete steps to stop the wickedness, because once the commercial banks fail, it throws bad light at the CBN which may on the long run, affect the nation’s financial system,” he stated.
On the law protecting casual staff, he said, “I am not aware of any. The CBN usually uses the moral persuasion mechanism, which has also remained ineffective.”
Similarly, an emeritus professor of economics, Sheriffdeen Tella, says contract staffing of bank workers is an illegal way of treating labour.
“The labour unions are supposed to have taken it up, but they have yet to do so effectively, and the situation lingers,” Tella advised.
Tella opined that casual workers are sometimes responsible for inefficient services provided by banks amid rising fraud cases.
He said, “The workers will not be committed to the job because of job insecurity. The banks have refused to give staff the required training for their jobs, so everybody suffers, including the banks themselves. There’s a need, therefore, to look at the labour laws again and amend them as appropriate.”
