400 recently sacked Diamond Bank staff protest non-payment of severance pay

The workers based in Kaduna decried their treatment by Diamond Bank and were of the opinion that Diamond Bank should not be different from other banks who have already paid the severance package owed to their workers in line with the Labour Laws. The representative for the protesting ex-staffers said: “Diamond Bank is not the only bank that sacked its staff recently, but obviously, it is the only bank that is refusing to pay its former workers their severance pay after terminating their appointments unannounced. . . And to further strengthen their refusal to pay, the bank is telling the public that we were sack due to our non-performance. This is not only a malicious lie but it is wicked because by saying that, they are trying to render us unemployable. But on the contrary, many of us who were affected, numbering over 400, have good/excellent performance rating during previous appraisals including the last one done by the bank. The records are all there. So, Diamond Bank should stop peddling falsehood and own up their responsibilities. If they are sacking because of economic reasons, they should say so and adequately settle anyone they terminate his or her appointment. That was what other banks did." The representative also said that the bank has already thrown all their accounts into debit, suspended their visa cards as well as threatening them to immediately pay up any money owed it as a result of the upfront allowances paid them in January/February. Also that it (the bank) shall begin to apply the staff rate of 4% interest for 90 days, after which it shall begin to attract interest at Monetary Policy Rate. They pleaded with the FG to prohibit other financial institutions and organisations from arbitrarily firing people at the slightest economic downturn."