Workers Shut Down Oceanic Bank Headquarters.

Activities at Oceanic Bank Headquarters and
all its branches in Lagos State, Southwest
Nigeria were paralysed Friday following the
decision of the new owner of the bank,
Ecobank to pay the disengaged staff paltry
sum of money as severance package.

•Disengaged Oceanic Bank workers
protesting in front of Ecobank on Ozumba
Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, this
morning. PHOTO:

The headquarters of Oceanic Bank on
Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, was
shut following protest by disengaged staff
rejecting the severance money offered them
by the bank.
NextVoice gathered that hundreds of staff of
the former Oceanic Bank, which were
recruited by Oceanic Security have been laid
off.
Policemen took over the gate of the Oceanic
Bank Headquarters as staff protested the
proposed poor severance package Ecobank
intends to pay them.
It was gathered that the bank wanted to
pay the disengaged staff N40, 000 per
annum across board to disengaged staff
recruited by Oceanic Security, a subsidiary of
Oceanic Bank.
What this means is that workers who have
spent eight years working for the former
Oceanic Bank will take home a paltry N320,
000 for all the years spent working for the
bank.
The workers said they would only agree to
be disengaged if adequate package was
paid them, while rejecting what they called
peanut offered by the bank to them.
Also, as at this morning, almost all Oceanic
Bank branches were shut to workers and
customers as customers could not withdraw
or deposit any money as a result of the crisis
rocking the bank.
The Oceanic Bank branches at Secretariat,
Alausa; Amuwo-Odofin and others were
shut, while security officers turned
customers back.
A staff of the bank, who craved anonymity,
said activities had been completely paralysed
in all branches of the bank, including the
headquarters taken over by policemen.
He said the management of the new bank
offered to pay the workers a paltry amount
of money as severance allowance, saying
that it was completely unacceptable.
According to him, Oceanic Bank had about
300 branches and that staff recruited by
Oceanic Security in most of the branches
had been laid off, while the new owner had
brought in its own staff to occupy the
positions of the disengaged workers.
“Right now, in all the branches, things have
collapsed. There is no network in all the
branches right now and work is not going
on,” he said.
Another staff of the bank, who also craved
anonymity, said that the severance
package proposed by the new owner of the
bank was too small, saying that those laid
off could be in thousands.
When contacted, the Corporate Affairs
Manager of Ecobank, Michael Joseph said he
could not speak for the Managing Director,
saying that the bank would soon issue a
press statement on the matter.
There are fears that more workers will lose
their jobs in the wake of banking reforms
and mergers.