Reps summon Mainstreet Bank MD over sack of 670 workers

Sunnews: Miffed by the failure of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Mainstreet Bank, Mrs. Faith Tuedor-Matthews, to honour the invitation of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, the members of the committee yesterday resolved to issue a bench warrant to arrest her if she fails to appear on October 2.

The committee, currently holding a public hearing had invited Mrs. Tuedor-Matthews to appear before it and answer to a petition against the bank for refusing to pay terminal benefits to some staff of the establishment whose appointments were terminated last year.

Rather than appear in person, the MD delegated the Executive Director in charge of Operations, Mr. Anogwi Anyanwu, to stand in for her and on behalf of the company.

Chairman of the committee, Jones Onyereri, who did not hide his anger over the development, insisted that the committee would not accept anybody else to speak for the bank apart from the MD.

Consequently, after presentation by the aggrieved victims, the committee suspended the hearing and mandated the MD to appear before it on October 2 unfailingly or risk provoking the committee to issue a warrant of arrest on her.

Spirited effort by Anyanwu to convince the committee of his competence to represent his bank effectively proved abortive as the Reps had become emotional after listening to the pathetic and agonising experiences of the sacked bank workers.

The bank reportedly terminated the appointments of 670 of its staff, most of who were of management cadre, last year and also allegedly refused to pay them their terminal benefits in accordance with the rules of engagement.

The affected workers, whose position was presented to the committee by Mr. Eyo Usanga, told the lawmakers how they were unilaterally sacked by the management of the bank without any reason other than that it was part of restructuring process in the bank.

Usanga said the affected staff, who were already living in penury, made several efforts to get the bank to settle them to no avail, regretting that several interventions made by the Ministry of Labour and other concerned bodies in Nigeria could not move the management of the Mainstreet Bank to attend to their plight.

While in search of solution to their predicament, the group made a peaceful protest to the National Assembly few months ago; this attracted the sympathy of the legislators.