Lagos — The management of Mainsteet Bank (formerly Afribank Plc) has terminated the appointment of over 650 of its staff. The exercise took place last Friday through the electronic mails to the affected workers comprising both senior and junior cadres.

Confirming this at a press conference in Lagos, yesterday, Secretary-General of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria Chief John Kolawole said the action of the bank lacks due process and manifests the height of provocation and lawlessness which is condemnable.

He urged the affected workers not to receive termination letters from the bank as the union is determined to come to their rescue.

He also urged the management of the bank to immediately reverse the termination and other anti-labour acts, failing which his members will shut down the operation of the bank.

Kolawole said the bank shunned the peace moves by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and other stakeholders to prevent the crisis.

According to him, the Ministerial Tripartite Committee recently wrote a letter to the bank to maintain status quo pending when the crisis is resolved.

This, he said, is coming after few days of one of the series of the tripartite committee's meeting in Abuja between representatives of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the sectoral union and management of Mainsteeet Bank Limited on the outstanding gratuity of the staff of the defunct Afribank Nigeria Plc taken over by Mainstreet Bank Limited.

He said: "Despite all these peace moves and initiatives, the management of Mainstreet Bank Limited went ahead to unilaterally terminate the appointments of our members, violating the Trade Disputes Act T8 and T9 Section 2, Sub section 1, the subsisting industry-wide collective agreement etc and without any compensation."

A staff of the bank said the affected workers were those that have spent 20 years on the job and those whose age is 50 years and above. Branch managers whose branch is not contributing to the profit of the bank were also affected.

The Corporate Affairs Manager of the bank, Mr. Moshood Isamotu did not pick several calls made to his phone for reaction. He equally did not reply our text message.