UBA Sacks 4,000 Workers

Leading Pan-African lender, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has thrown over 4,000 employees into the labour market in a New Year mass retrenchment exercise.

One of those affected by the exercise told News Express that they reported for work last week Friday, January 3, 2020, only to be informed of the termination of their appointments.

“A mail was sent to your immediate supervisor to inform you that that your services are no longer needed. It affected FSS staff, Tier 2,” one of those retrenched said. FSS means Frontline Service Staff.

The exercise was said to have affected mainly outsourced staff in UBA branches across the country.

“Despite our additional qualifications, we were not converted to full staff, so our compensation package is nothing to write home about. They have now employed another 4,000 outsourced staff to replace those sacked,” according to one of those retrenched.

News Express learnt that those affected included people who had spent 14 years in service at UBA. Efforts by industry unions – National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) and Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (ASBIFIE) – to mediate did not achieve results.

UBA was silent on the mass sack when it announced a massive employment and promotion exercise last Friday, saying in a statement: “In a massive recruitment drive, over 4,000 new staff members resumed in the last week of December 2019 in Nigeria alone at the bank. UBA currently stands as the highest employer of labour amongst Nigerian banks with a staff strength of close to 20,000.”

The statement also announced that “over 5,000 staff of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, started the new year with a lot of cheer as the bank announced their promotion to new grades as well as salary upgrades with immediate effect this January.”

Source: News Express