Laid off workers of First Atlantic Bank reject redudancy package

The 100 workers laid off following the merger between First Atlantic Bank and Energy Bank have rejected completely the redundancy package offered to them by the new entity created out of the merger.

According to persons close to the bank, the affected workers were offered a severance pay of 1.5 months basic salary for each year of service completed on a pro-rata basis for not more than 24 months.

The bank also offered a 20 percent discount on total outstanding loan amount any of the affected workers may have with the bank.

The affected workers were also given a month’s basic salary in lieu of the one month notice as well as transportation of GHS2,000 to each of the workers.

But the workers in a letter written to the management of First Atlantic Bank rejected in its entirety the package offered them. The letter sighted by Citi Business News and dated May 3, 2019, argued the bank was required by law to give at least 3 months’ notice on the redundancy.

The letter written on the workers’ behalf by labour consultant Senyo Adjabeng demanded that all redundancy processes and payment of severance packages be put on hold to pave way for fresh negotiations in accordance with Section 65 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651).

Banking reforms fall out

The loss of jobs in the banking sector over the past two years or so have been largely occasioned by the central bank’s implementation of a number of banking reforms.

While the central bank has insisted its reforms are tailored to build a resilient financial industry that can support the economy, the fallout has seen at least nine banks lose their licenses with a number of them in talks for possible mergers and acquisition.

The establishment of the Consolidated Bank – a result of the collapse of The Royal Bank, Sovereign Bank, UniBank, Beige Bank and Construction Bank — alone is reported to have resulted in about 1,700 job losses.

Also, the initial takeover of UT and Capital banks also came with its own job losses as hundreds of workers were rendered redundant and subsequently struggled to gain employment.