By Stephen Odoi-Larbi
When the Managing Director (MD) of Access Bank Ghana, Dolapo Ogundimu, announced in March this year that 'there are enough jobs for everyone,' following his outfit's successful acquisition of Intercontinental Bank Ghana (IBG), industry observers were relieved that the acquisition was not going to further compound the large unemployment problem in the country.

However, barely two months down the line, the MD's pronouncement has turned to be vague, with a series of dismissals dominating the day-to-day activities of the orange and blue family.

Following the ordered retrenchment of the work force, the bank's slogan 'A Passion for Excellence' has now been turned around to 'A passion for Mediocrity.'

Currently, sixteen absorbed members of staff of the IBG have been asked to proceed on indefinite leave, commencing April, 30, 2012, when they had not requested to go on leave.

Following this order to leave the bank, the 16 have joined hands with 70 other colleague-petitioners who are on collision course with Access Bank Ghana over their redundancy package, in line with the conditions of service as contained in the IBG Staff Human Resource (HR) Policy Book.

Apart from those who have opted to exit the bank following diminutive returns in their terms and conditions of service, The Chronicle can report that over 50 staff of the bank, including two general managers and a handful of senior managers, have vacated their posts due to unpleasant and intimidating management practices adopted by the leadership of Access Bank.

The Chronicle is reliably informed that in the face of Access Bank contesting directives by the National Labour Council that the petitioners ought to be re-instated pending the determination of the matter before the commission, at the Accra High Court (Labour Division), staff members concerned were not paid any salaries or their allowances for the month of April 2012.

Pieces of information picked up by this paper indicate that the bank is almost certain not to pay them for May 2012 also.

The judicial review writ filed by Access Bank against the NLC and the petitioning staff was adjourned to May 14 th 2012, whereas the substantive matter of the determination of redundancy had its first hearing by the NLC on May 2, 2012. After close to two and half hours of sitting, that meeting was also adjourned to May 30, 2012.

It is the fear of those concerned that the bank was using all manner of tactics to worsen the plight of the affected staff, as it seeks to prolong the matter, and has refused to pay the staff any salaries or allowances as long as the matter remained unresolved.