Access Bank drags NLC to court

Citi Business News has learnt Access Bank has dragged the National Labour Commission to court over the commission’s recent ruling on the dismissal of some IBG staff following the merger of the two banks.

Almost eighty workers of IBG were dismissed last month after they failed to sign an absorption letter which contained the introduction of new conditions including the writing of a credit policy guide test.

The NLC, however, directed the bank to reinstate the workers immediately while the matter was looked into. Citi Business News has however learnt the workers have still not been reinstated almost two weeks after the commission gave the directive.

In a twist of events, Access Bank has also dragged the NLC to court over its directive.

The High Court is due to make a ruling on the matter on Tuesday, April 17. Charles Bawa Duah who is the lawyer for the workers of IBG who were dismissed told Citi Business News he will make his submissions to the court on Tuesday.

“We made a complaint to the National Labour Commission’s preliminary dissemination as to the legality of the lockout,” he said.

“So in March, the NLC met both parties and came out with a directive that until the commission determines the substantive issue of whether or not the merger created a redundancy for which the workers must be paid, and since the bank is not happy with that, it will have to be determined by the court,” he added.

Meanwhile, checks by Citi Business News indicate Access Bank is yet to respond to the substantive issue which is the payment of a severance package that is being demanded by the workers.

Some of the workers dragged Access Bank to the NLC last month while others resorted to the courts to compel the bank to pay them the severance package. **