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Business News of Sunday, 10 May 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

EXCLUSIVE: How Nigerian employees are coping with layoffs during the pandemic

A Banking Hall A Banking Hall

The average Nigerian worker slaves eight hours a day or more at their respective jobs to survive and take care of their families. Day-to-day, employees deal with a host of debilitating factors as they strive against all odds to give their best at their place of work. When all that hard work is replaced by a sudden termination letter at the end of their numerous sacrifices, the pain is unimaginable, unbearable and pretty traumatic.

Bilikisu Adebanjo, a single mother of one did not see a sack letter in the offing despite working at Access Bank for 7 years. She didn't even have the liberty of the lender terminating her contract appropriately. As she recalls it, it was 12:49 pm when her Twitter feed brought her the news. She went on check her mail and the stark reality stood there on her phone face-to-face.

"The mail was sent in the noon on May 2nd by 12.49pm. Before that, it was leaked on social media. That was how we got to know," She recounted.

What happened after was immense grief.

"Oh, how did I feel? I'm in grief and so pained. I am not even myself and I have been down. When I saw the mail, I was shocked and I had to lock myself inside because I did not want to talk to anyone. I have been crying because I do not know how to get a job in this era of COVID 19 when the economy is not balanced.”


Bilikisu (Picture blurred at owner's request)

Narrating her ordeal, she said, "I used to work with Access Bank as Customer care officer. As a contract staff, I was employed by one of the outsourced company seconded to Access Bank. I joined the bank in June 2013 and since then, I have been working very hard to meet my daily needs. I was loved and cherished by my supervisors because I do not joke with my job.

"I have been down because I do not have other sources of income. I am an orphan and a single mother of 1 precious boy. How did they want me to survive with the economy that is very hard? This is total wickedness," She told MyNigeria.com.

Bilikisu is one of the many whose appointment was terminated by Access Bank in this era of COVID-19 that affected businesses and caused profits to rapidly decline.

Exactly April 30th 2020, a leaked video of CEO of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe surfaced online. Herbert revealed plans to cut off the bulk of its support staff and introduce a pay cut for permanent staff. 75% of support staff were to be affected in this endeavor.

Shortly after the news made headlines, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers’ Committee stepped into the matter, ordering banks to suspend sacking of workers in the banks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Banks were told to hold their guns but for Bilikisu and several disengaged staff, the deed had already been done.



Ekanola Adekayode had always known he would be laid off from First Bank. He knew this because this was the second time contract staff were being laid off after a ten year circle.

Kayode's words: "I joined the bank February 2011 but the termination happened November 20,2020. I just got home after work in the evening and was called by a colleague to check my office outlook profile from my phone, but I couldn't. The next day, I went to the office and logged in to check my mail. I saw the mail. Read through it and after few minutes; I could not access the email and my profile. Two days later, we were credited as termination pay off. The main reason wasn't communicated and there was no appraisal of underperformance."

Unlike many others who expressed grief at the loss of their jobs, Adekayode took it in his stride.

"There are no hard feelings at all. Because that's the second time it's happening in the organization. It happened to the first batch before us which everyone was surprised. So most of my batch knew anytime soon it might happen," Kayode explained.


Termination letter

Worst hit of the retrenched staff was Victor who was deeply affected by the job loss. Victor, a devoted employee of Access Bank got his termination letter on Workers’ day. He could not break the news to his 7 months pregnant wife as soon as it happened. His wife, Bolanle volunteered to speak to MyNigeria.com.

"He got the mail on the 1st of May 2020 and he told me a day after considering that I am 7months pregnant and he didn't know how I will take the news. It is not easy for anyone to share such news," she said.

"It’s such a sad situation for me considering that he has devoted so much. We had several fights on him choosing work over family because he works on weekends too. Imagine a job that doesn't allow you to take any rest, go to church or do anything else for yourself. Even when on leave, he is still working. He gave too much to be taken off like that," she lamented.

However, the loss of jobs was not particular to banking alone. Last month, the management of Arik Air issued a mail to all workers that it had implemented an 80% salary cut for its personnel for the month of April.
That was not all. The airline also ordered 90% of its 1,800 staff to proceed on leave without pay until further notice.



The airline’s Chief Executive Officer, Roy Ilegbodu, in an internal memo said the company took the decision as the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic has caused the airline an unimaginable financial strait.
“We have suffered a sharp decline of over 98% in our revenue streams since the suspension of our scheduled flights almost four weeks ago,” Ilegbodu said in a message sent to the staff of the company.

“Added to this is the rapid decline in the value of the Naira by over 35% against the benchmark and with oil prices now falling well below $15 per barrel, it is evident that we must, without further delay, take decisive action to preserve our organization.”

The economic woes were felt everywhere including iROKOtv, an entertainment streaming platform which decided to place 28% of its Nigerian staff on unpaid leave.


iROKO TV

Citing a range of issues from currency devaluation to the COVID19 pandemic and oil fortunes shrinking, Jason Njoku knew he had a difficult decision to make in the memo to his workers. He didn't furlough them without adding a health insurance policy for the furloughed staff, saying health in this pandemic was the only benefit he could offer.

Poor staff welfare, widespread discrimination

Miss Adebanjo believes there is a form of discrimination between HND holders and Bachelor degree holders who work in banks. Categorising them, she said contract staff are usually holders of HND employed by outsourced firms while the degree holders are hired by the Bank. These reasons affected her career growth and subsequent promotions, she opined.

"I was promoted twice and even with that the salary is not up to half of what their professional staff is getting. If you were promoted as a contract staff they only add like 10 to 15k to the salary. The bank doesn't treat contract staff very well when compared to other banks. They can just employ somebody now and the person will be your supervisor," she revealed.

This view was paramount across board.

"Contract staff career progression is different from the core staff. The Grade does not change, only salary adjustment. The career progression is a conversion program in which the staff age to participate must be with 32 downward," Ekanola said.

Forced to take a pay cut

Victor, on the other hand, was unfairly treated by the bank. He came in as a graduate trainee until he was forced to take a pay cut and become an outsourced staff against his will.

"My husband was originally hired by Access Bank as a graduate trainee. But all of a sudden they moved him and other employees under subcontractors, converting them to outsourced staff. With a drastic pay cut of 40%, still he maintained the job because getting a job in Nigeria is hard coupled with the fact that his family has to survive as I am currently unemployed," his wife narrated.


Bolanle and Victor (Picture blurred at owner's request)

This new pay cut regime didn't reduce his workload. As bad as it got, Victor still gave his best but he was yanked off with no benefits or nothing to even lay hold on. "It was such a devastating experience," Bolanle explained.

Choosing to confide in MyNigeria.com, Bolanle said her husband failed to walk away after being forced to take a drastic cut in the third year of his five year sojourn with the bank because it was too demanding and traumatic.
Explaining the principle behind the contract work in the bank, Bolanle said it was a way of paying people less and covering their tracks.

"Let me explain it this way, Access bank works with agencies. So they move their permanent staff under these sub contractors to ease the number of people on their payroll and so they can pay less. There is a media side to it such that when you are laid off, it can hardly be traced because your name won't appear on the bank's payroll and it can easily be said that your employer which is the contractor you have being moved under laid you off.

Hence the reason a large number of their staff seem to be outsourced." she said.

Bolanle also noted that Victor was never promoted. She added that he spent five years on the same spot despite getting A's and nothing less than B's in his appraisal monthly and annually.

Sacked without retirement benefits

While Ekanola was disengaged from First Bank, the failure to terminate his contract without a formal termination letter was his concern.
His words: "My contention is fine, you terminated our appointment but we deserve to be given a formal termination letter because without the termination, I can't write to claim my pension.

"The 25% is stipulated by the law to be paid. Pension is deducted monthly from your gross salary and remitted to the pension funds company. To claim it, you will present a copy of your termination letter," Kayode explained.
For over five months now, the bank has consistently failed to do the needful.

"It's five months now. The copy of the termination letter was not sent to us nor to the last branch I worked. That's my point," he stressed.

Season of mass revenue dips

Verraki Partners, a business solutions company for Africa in a report titled: “COVID-19 and Nigerian Businesses: From Survival to Thriving in a Changing World,” stated that the social, economic and financial challenges of the COVID-19 will lead to a global economic recession in 2020 and potential lost output of $2.7 trillion.

According to the firm, employee productivity is expected to drop especially for companies that were not designed for and have not made remote working a part of their processes. It explained that there has been a quake on the world economy caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It said COVID-19 plagued nations would experience a collapse in national development indices.

Verraki Partners noted that while the exchange rate will be significantly challenged from the loss of exports proceed, this pandemic will be responsible for the attendant decline in revenues, reduction in profits, and erosion in asset value for non-essential services, consumer-facing, and export-dependent firms, which may then have to downsize.

Furthermore, it stressed that market scenarios are likely to get worse if the naira is devalued, as the Central Bank of Nigeria has set a $30 billion foreign reserves threshold for devaluation.



To solve this situation, The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA advocated for the establishment of a Job Retention Scheme, where government pay up to 60% of private-sector salaries until June, as long as workers are not laid off, as done in other climes like the United Kingdom, France and Denmark, among others.

NECA’s Director-General, Timothy Olawale, said that would reduce the negative impact on businesses and slow the rate of job losses.

What the future holds

For Victor and his wife, it's all been like one big bad dream. This is despite sacrificing everything for the job which created a few rips in the family. Bolanle says he knows better now, however the effects of the only job he had still lingers.

“Everywhere is quiet, people have resumed work but you have to hide because he can't tell them. The home is quiet; communication is hard because you can't really know what is on his mind. Sometimes he cries and all but I am trying my best not to break down and all...at least for his sake and our unborn baby.”

She, however, noted that he has started to dust himself and see what he can do but the morale is quite low.

For Adebanjo, all hopes lie in finding a new job or getting recalled pretty soon. While she mulls business opportunities but a job at this point in time would be indeed helpful.

“Well I have been engaging people on how to get another job but the country is not balanced at the moment, so getting a job might be difficult except one knows any top political people that can assist,” she responded.

Adekayode has moved on. Himself and his wife were both contract staff in First Bank where she was laid off, a week after he was. She has managed to stem the tide to move into fashion design while he delved into agent banking.

“It's a positive effect because now I have time to spend with my family. Running agent banking services where I employed two staff on my payroll. Before the termination, I only get to spend the weekend with my family! My wife is also a skilled fashion designer and is running her own business too,” he said.

A Human Resources professional, Samuel Akinlotan, believes mass lay-offs should a last resort. He tells businesses to be transparent and patient with their employees instead.

"It's a new challenge for most or all businesses. Most businesses didn’t see this coming, and it has affected and impacted business revenue negatively.

"The massive lay-off that has been experienced is mainly a reactive approach for most businesses. For businesses that can't keep up with paying salary due to a drop in revenue, they can look at the option of engaging employees to work part-time with a pay cut, or furlough then so they can return to work after the pandemic has subsided," he advised.

A new development

Right after, Bilikisu engaged MyNigeria.com, she revealed that the outsourcing firm sent out a memo recalling all disengaged contract staff to work. However, the letter noted that none of the branches (which the letter referred to as clients) was operating in full capacity and therefore no contract staff can be reinstated to work immediately due to closure of operations.

"It is worthy of note that some of our clients are unable to operate in full capacity and this implies that we are unable to send you to any of our clients in the interim. However, please take notice that your employment with ICS Outsourcing subsists," the letter read in part.



Bilikisu believes it’s a ploy to save face which doesn’t still guarantee any job.

"They are not giving us any job. Just telling us that we are still with the outsourced company and if there is any space, they will get back to us," she explained.