About 300 Consolidated Bank Staff Run To ICU

About 300 workers of four out of the five collapsed banks who fear losing their jobs with the newly established Consolidated Bank have asked the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) to negotiate their redundancy packages for them.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) on August 1, 2018, revoked the licences of UniBank, Construction, Sovereign, Royal and Beige Banks for being heavily insolvent as a result of mismanagement and poor corporate governance, among others.

The collapsed banks were merged into a new state-owned bank the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited, which took over their assets and liabilities.

Workers of the five defunct banks automatically become staff of the Consolidated Bank, and have since been given 60-day probation period after which some of them would be dismissed.

But before the expiration of the 60 days, some workers of the defunct UniBank, Sovereign, Beige and Royal Banks, who fear losing their jobs, want the ICU to help them claim their redundancy packages.

However, workers of the defunct Construction Bank are not included in the redundancy arrangement, as some of them have already been paid.

General Secretary of the ICU, Solomon Kotei, said they will begin negotiations with the Consolidated Bank from August ending, and assured the workers that he would ensure they get what is due them.

“For now, ICU has got individuals who have signed on from The Royal Bank, Construction Bank, UniBank and two other banks that were also part of it [the collapse banks]. We have about 300 members who are still filling the forms,” he told TV3.

He said ICU has been in touch with the Receiver about the move.

“They have also welcomed us so by next week we are taking the consolidated numbers that we have and then we pick it from there.”

Meanwhile, the ICU has urged the workers of the UT Bank and Capital Bank, which collapsed a year ago and have not received their compensation to push further for their exit packages.

Some experts have argued that workers of the two defunct banks are not being treated well because their unions failed to negotiate for them.

They also argued that those workers have been given a raw deal.

“With Construction Bank…it has a membership of about 34 staff so it was able to pay them something by the close of 31^st July, 2018. Just about six of them refused to take what was pushed down their throats; they were given just one month salary,” Mr Kotei explained.