Union Homes’ ASSBIFI is Using Strike as Weapon of Blackmail – Management
The industrial strike action embarked upon by the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc has been described as not only illegal but a deliberate attempt by a minority of the staff to blackmail the company into submitting to its whims and caprices.
Pearl Kanu, Managing Director, Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc said the attention of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc has also been drawn to the convening of a press conference by a section of the Union Homes Unit of ASSBIFI on Wednesday August 28, 2013, in which many of the earlier reported allegations were repeated and several more levelled against the Company.
He said, while Union Homes has, in the past, refrained from reacting to contentions and claims of such nature, the company believes that it has become imperative to unreservedly articulate the facts, set the record straight and provide the benefit of a proper balance of information in the public sphere.
As is the case with corporate entities from time to time, Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc is reorganising for greater efficiency. The Company is striving to improve its processes, manage its costs and, at the same time, increase productivity. Our goal is to be a more effective organisation, providing valued services to our customers and supported by a competent workforce.
Unfortunately, our efforts to create a better organisation have been met with resistance by a very vocal and deliberate minority.
This minority has, regrettably, seized and exploited the opportunities available to it in an attempt to disrupt operations and somehow coerce the Company into adopting an ineffectual and impracticable state of existence. The strategy adopted by this small group has included a continued, illegal strike action, the locking of the company head office gates in order to prevent the peaceful ingress and egress of our committed, majority staff and valued customers, as well as the levelling of several falsehoods and deliberate misrepresentations against the company. Many of the allegations made are, incidentally, directed at the former Management and Board of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc.
The industrial strike action by the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) of Union Homes Savings and Loans Plc may be justifiable in view of the complain we (customers) were made to understand. That the staff whose services were terminated were not paid their terminal benefits. If the PMI (Union Homes) was not prepared to pay their hard earned entitlements why did the Management commenced the process of terminating their employment? How do they expect them to survive with their families? We (Customers) are made to suffer on account of failure of someone to do his job appropriately. The intervention of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria is urgently required to resolve the crisis affecting this his area of jurisdiction.