The Federal Government has appealed to banks and other companies to stop retrenchment of their staff in this period. This appeal is coming 24 hours after a commercial bank laid of 1040 of its staff. The Federal government’s appeal is contained in a statement signed by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige and released today June 3rd. The statement reads;
“Following spate of petitions and complaints from stakeholders in the banking, insurance and financial institutions, I hereby direct the suspension of the on-going retrenchment pending the outcome of the conciliatory meetings in the industry. This is as a result of the apprehension by my office of the various disputes in the sector in accordance and in compliance with the provisions of the labour laws of Nigeria. In this wise, all the retrenchments and redundancies done in the last four months and all proposed ones should be put on hold pending the outcome of the proposed stakeholders’ summit for the banking, insurance and financial institutions’ employers and employees, slated for July 2.” it said.