The slave labour practices by South Africa owned Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc is doing very untold damage to the
economy of Nigeria as the bank laid off another set of two hundred and five (205) Nigerian employees on April 30 this year.
Sources familiar with the involvement in slave labour practices by the South African owners of the bank who a few years ago acquire the assets and liabilities of the then Chartered Bank of Nigeria, said that Stanbic IBTC Bank first discouraged unionization among its workers before embarking on an aggressive purge of Nigerians in order to maximize profit which it usually repatriate to South Africa with minimal corporate obligations within Nigeria.
Sharpedgenews.com authoritatively gathered that only a pitiable twenty percent (20%) of the workforce of Stanbic IBTC Bank are on permanent employment status. The vast majority of eighty percent (80%) of the bank are contract or casual workers. “The bank violates industrial standards by first discouraging its workers from joining National Union of Banking and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE)”, said one of the sources who volunteered to speak with sharpedgenews.com, while opting for anonymity in order not to be victimized by the vindictive owners of Stanbic IBTC Bank.
One of our sources explained that the casualization of most employees’ services has precipitated the cases of pilfering of customers’ funds, outright fraud and embezzlement and blind stealing in one of the bank’s branches. The source disclosed that many of the front desk officials of the bank such as cashiers and accounts officers who are seen as big bankers are paid peanuts ranging between forty thousand naira (#40,000) and fifty thousand naira (#50,000) as the case may be. Their wages therefore is around $12 to $15 a day.
A staff at the Akure branch of the bank recently stole monies belonging to a customer totaling #6.5m, about $40,000. “No one excuses stealing by a banker who should be trustworthy. But the slave labour standards of Stanbic IBTC leaves no one with a rational choice than stealing at times”, said one of our sources after being challenged that nothing could have justified fraud.
The industrial labour standards of Stanbic IBTC Bank is not different from those of other South African Companies in Nigeria. One of the pioneer Global Satellite Telephony (G.S.M) companies in the country, MTN, is notorious for disrespecting and violating local contractors, employees and laws of the land.
Some of those laid off in April 30 by Stanbic IBTC Bank have worked with the company for more than seventeen years.