2020: UBA sacks hundreds of staff using fanciful word

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) has sacked many of its staff at the beginning of a new decade under what it tagged ‘rightsizing’ after they were asked to resign in an on-going restructuring exercise being conducted by the bank.

The word rightsize, however, may not be appropriate as compared to ‘downsize’ because according to the affected staff, recruitment of new staff had started last year.

Multiple sources said that many of the affected staff are officers who have spent between 10 to 13 years in the service of the bank.

Some of the affected staff gave different narratives of how the exercise was conducted at different branches of the bank nationwide, between last December and the first week of January. They also said that the decision came to them as a rude shock.

The development has since caused disquiet among staff and a section of the public, amidst reports of mass lay-offs in the bank.

But the bank’s spokesperson, Nasir Ramon, said that there was no lay-off of staff in the bank. Ramon explained that some staff who “under-performed” during the bank’s internal appraisal exercise were advised to resign based on UBA’s right-sizing policy.

The right-sizing exercise, he said, also involves the streamlining of the bank’s grade structure so that staff can enjoy “an accelerated professional life”, adding that affected staff would be paid their rightful emoluments.

But an affected staff in one of the bank’s Lagos branches, explained that the exercise began in November when some new recruits were drafted to the branches for training.

“The new guys were trained and we were told that they would join the operations departments in our branches,” the staff, who asked not to be named, said. “But last December, we were told that some people would have to go. On January 4, many of us were denied access to the bank’s portal and it dawned on us that we have been affected.”

According to the official who claimed to have spent over 13 years in the bank, people affected in the exercise are largely staff who have spent between 10 to 13 years in the service of the bank. He, however, disclosed that they are already being paid their emoluments even though he currently does not have access to the money.

“Maybe some of us are owing the bank (in loans),” he said, of possible reasons why the money cannot be accessed yet.

Another source within the bank said a consultancy firm hired new employees on its behalf on December 6.

According to him, the new hands were drafted to different branches and trained in the operations department, with details that about six would join each of the selected branches. On Friday, January 2, the source said that Regional Operations Managers were then instructed to inform the affected staff members about the rightsizing exercise and the resignation option.

Perhaps to forestall possibility of a paper trail, the source said the information was passed orally.