Staff of Diamond Bank Plc in Plateau State on Wednesday joined their counterparts in the nationwide strike declared by the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that as earlier as 8am, officials of the state branch of NUBIFIE went round all the branches of the bank and picketed them.
Workers were asked to vacate their seats while customers were sent out of the banking halls and thereafter, the gates were locked.
The union officials arrived at the Club Road branch around 9am and spent 45 minutes in closing the bank.
The National Senior Assistant General-Secretary, NUBIFIE, Sunday Akinfolarin, told NAN that the action was imperative due to alleged bad conditions of service.
Akinfolaran said: “For about three years now, we have been struggling with the management of Diamond Bank Plc to improve on the condition of service of its staff but to no avail.
“We had 17 hours rat race meeting with the management yesterday (May 14), beginning from 8am to 1am of today but we couldn’t reach an accord.
“Of course, the only option left for us is to declare a global industrial strike in all branches of the bank to press home for an improved welfare package for the staff.”
Akinfolarin said that 85 per cent of the banks staff were casual workers, mostly graduates, and were being paid a paltry N18,000 monthly in spite of over time working hours.
He added: “These are the bulk workforce of the bank, yet there is no career pack, no condition of service and none of them can access a single naira as a loan.
“Among the whole banks in Nigeria, Diamond Bank has the worst condition of service for its workers.
“This we can’t allow to continue because it’s unconstitutional, inhuman and demeaning.”
The NUBIFIE leader said that the strike was indefinite and would only be called off if the bank had an attitudinal change.
He appealed to the bank’s customers for patience and understanding with the union over the strike and called on them to also appeal to the bank management to do the right thing in their interest.
According to him, such conditions of service breed fraud in the banking system and that the union would soon look in the direction of other banks with similar condition.
However, some customers, who were caught in the scramble, expressed displeasure over the closure, which they said had hindered them from transacting business.
One of them, Uche Eze, expressed shock at the closure of the gate of the banks.
“My business will be affected by this matter, but I hope the management of the bank will do something over the grievances of the workers,” he said.
Also, Sode Dahal, said that he was already in the bank to get some money to solve a family problem but he was asked to leave the premises.
Dahal called on the bank to resolve the differences on time, not to create hardship for customers.
A member of the management staff of the bank who preferred anonymity, told NAN: “We don’t even have a union in our bank.
“Those on strike are contract workers like drivers and cleaners.”
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