BY SUNNY A. DAVID
One of the sacked staff of the Access Bank staff in the Southeast states in Onitsha, Anambra State reportedly collapsed while protesting alleged dismissal without benefits.
The victim, Miss Ochulor Kelechi, said the dismissal came to her as a shock as she had never beenfound wanting in the course of his assignments.
She said, “I was one of those November 2020 batch sacked by Access Bank. I worked at Access Bank Azikiwe avenue Aba. when I asked what our offence was, they said mystery shopping offence. So I will like to see the video clipp or be shown the results where I did badly.
“I collapsed because of the frustration and depression that I collapsed. You know I came from Aba this morning to join my sacked colleagues.
“Besides, I’ve not been feeling fine since the sack and because of the importance of the protest I insisted on coming to Onitsha and join my colleagues in the protest to get our benefits”, she decried.
The protesters who marched through major roads in the commercial city with placards before ending at the gate of Basilica of Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha, said they were in the church for God to hear their prayers.
Some of placards bore the inscriptions, “CBN/NLC/Bankers committee come to our rescue, Access Bank at it again, sacking staff without lay off benefits, Access Bank mystery shopping video, amidst Covid-19 Access Bank sacked 3 times in 2020.
Others were, “Working Monday to Sunday no benefits for 10 years, over 300 sacked in Southeast on November 2020 without benefits, Access Bank show us the mystery video clipp you claimed you used to rate our performance and sacked us.”
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Mr Emmanuel Okoye, said the protest was not to paint the bank black, but to register their grievances over what he described as injustice.
He called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Bank Committees to come to their rescue, insisting they should be paid their entitlement, or better still, be given something reasonable.
He said, “I worked with Access Bank Main market branch Onitsha, I was among the over 300 Access Bank staff November 2020 batch dismissed in the five Southeast states of Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia without given us tangible reasons and benefits for our dismissal.
“CBN gave its directive that no bank staff should be sacked especially at this Covid-19 pandemic but Access bank has sacked on three occasions in 2020. They did the first one in February, second in April and the third which we are involved in November, making it over 300 staff sacked in Southeast.
“They only gave us one month salary. What will one month salary do to people that are the bread winners with families in this economic hardship?
“They claimed to have taken mysterious shopping video to rate our poor performance with customers, let them show us the video clipp if what they are saying is the truth.
“We are not protesting to paint the Bank black or say anything nagative but it is not fair for somebody to work for you for years and you ask the person to just go like that.”
Meanwhile, Access Bank, however, denied sacking the workers, saying they were disengaged by their outsourcing firms.
The Bank’s Head of Media Relations, Mr. Abdul Imoyo, told our correspondent that the protest was an appeal to the Bank to intervene in the decision of the outsourcing companies.
He said: “It was not Access Bank that sacked them. The protest was about them calling on Access Bank to intervene in the termination of their appointments with their employers. It is about their relationship with their employers and because they work for Access Bank, they’re asking Access Bank to intervene and we have called their employers.
