Skye Bank fires 300 workers

There is palpable panic among regular and contract staff of Skye Bank Plc as the management of the financial institution has shortlisted names of three hundred employees under its workforce to be sacked.

A source from the bank told our reporter that the measure was in line with the present economic realities in the country. The source also hinted that those mostly affected were workers who had engaged in one professional misconduct or the other. Our reporter gathered that staff affected by the sack tsunami were in the senior, middle and lower cadres.

We also gathered that some staffers from various branches of the bank across the country were affected. However, some of the affected staff, according to the source, are yet to receive their sack letters, while others are still puzzled over the unfortunate incident.

One of the affected staff of the bank who did not want his name on print said that he put in twelve years in the bank only to be shown the back door after serving the bank meritoriously. He added that he was still awaiting details from the bank’s management as no form of compensation was detailed in the letter. He stated  further that after waiting for a while without a word from the management, he was prepared to enter into a legal battle against the management of the bank.

When this reporter visited Skye Bank branch along Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, Uga Junction, Onitsha, there was unusual calm in the branch as workers wore long faces for fear of the unknown. The situation even became tense in the branch when it was learnt that the branch BSM was affected by the sack having received his letter of termination of appointment.

The mass sack in the banks has generated a lot of controversy at a time when the Federal Government had a fortnight ago directed an end to retrenchment of workers in the banking sector following the termination of about 200 workers at Diamond Bank recently.