The Union of Industry Commerce and Finance (UNICOF) has threatened to embark on a strike following moves by Standard Charted Bank to lay off 65 workers of the bank by Friday July 17, 2015.
[contextly_sidebar id=”8wFo2vpuXd9KMLaetwAV0Y095EdrdOaA”]The move to strike follows a deadlock between management of Standard Chartered Bank and UNICOF over the matter which led to it being taken to the National Labour Commission (NLC).
Citi Business News has gathered that UNICOF and the local union of the bank have threatened to go ahead to strike because the bank has failed to implement fully a ruling from the National Labour Commission.
But documents citied by Citi Business News from the bank to workers said Standard Chartered bank is adhering to the National Labour Commission’s ruling.
The letter cited by Citi Business News from the National Labour Commission dated on 25th June 2015 revealed that the commission at its sitting on Wednesday 24th June 2015 heard the matter brought by Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited (Complainants) against the (UNICOF) (Respondents) over the deadlock on the determination of redundancy pay for the workers to be laid off.
The commission upon hearing the parties’ arguments ordered that the base pay shall be two months for each year served capped for 35 months.
It was also ruled that long services award, disturbance awards as well as handshake be declined.
The commission also directed that the notice of termination should be one month while repatriation shall be two thousand, three hundred Ghana cedis (GHC 2,300) among others.
But UNICOF upon receipt of the ruling from the NLC filed for a review describing the decision of the NLC as ambiguous.
In a letter to the Executive Secretary of NLC, lawyer of UNICOF Lawyer Charles Bawaduah sought clarification on some of the directives of the commission.
UNICOF wanted clarification on what the commission meant by directing that the base pay should be 2 months for each year served capped for 35 months, why the commission did not to recognize the disturbance allowance as well as the decision by the commission to decline the long service award.
UNICOF in the interim, while it sought clarification in a letter dated July 7 2015, served the National Labour Commission as well as Standard Charted Bank that it will embark on a strike within seven days in response to the move.
A letter from Standard Charted Bank however to all its employees on July 8, 2015 on the matter described the action of UNICOF as unfortunate and unwarranted development and stated that all actions taken by the bank comply with the labour Act 651 and the order given by the National Labour Commission.
The bank in its letter requested all employees to not hesitate to take all legitimate steps to protect the interest of the bank if the call for industrials action is carried out.
It also stated that employees who have been invited for discussions in connection with the redundancy exercise were to respond to the invitation without fail.
–
By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana