Industrial Court: Fidelity Bank Plc is at again, this time it was in far away National Industrial Court, Abuja.
One of the staff of the bank, Alah Jonathan was dismissed without the normal one month in lieu of notice.
The staff headed for court to seek redress, the court has therefore ordered the bank to pay the sum of N340,361= to the staff dismissed.
Reign of Oyetola will be a blessing to Osun people – Famurewa
The amount is the ex-worker’s one month’s salary in lieu of notice of termination of his employment.
The dismissed worker had sought redress in the court after his dismissal without being paid a month’s salary in lieu of notice of termination of his employment.
In her judgment, Justice Rakiya Haastrup, stressed that there was no evidence before the court to prove allegations of misconduct and fraud made by the bank against the ex-worker to justify his summary dismissal.
According to her, since the bank failed to justify the dismissal, the proper thing for the court to do was to convert the summary dismissal to termination of employment.
Haastrup also held that Fidelity bank must act in accordance with the terms and conditions regulating its employment as contained in the ex-worker’s employment letter before the court.
The terms and conditions, according to the judge, stipulate that one month notice is required before termination of employment or a month’s salary in lieu of notice of termination of employment.
She, therefore, ordered the payment of N340, 361 in lieu of one month notice of termination of employment and any other entitlements that may be due and accruable to the ex-worker.
Ogbeni Aregbesola, Too Painful To Say Goodbye – Adesoji OMOSEBI
She awarded N100, 000 against Fidelity bank as the cost of prosecuting the suit in favour of the claimant.
The judge, however, remarked that any wilful disobedience of a lawful and reasonable order of an employer by an employee was misconduct that should attract summary dismissal.
Counsel to Fidelity bank, Mr Etukwu Onah, had told the court that the ex-worker was dismissed because he was inconsistent in his responses to queries over allegations of misconduct, fraud and disappearance of N4.7 million in his custody as a cash officer.
He said that the ex-staff member failed to defend himself even before a disciplinary committee.
In a related development, the 12 ex-staff suit against Fidelity Bank has been adjourned to February 2019 to enable the bank do the needful of settling the retirement benefits of the affected staff.
VIDEOS: Pathetic plights of disengaged Fidelity Bank Staff without retirement benefits
It would be recalled that the bank headed by the MD/CEO Nnamdi Okonkwo refused to pay the 12 ex-staff their retirement benefits claiming that they were not originally employed by the bank despite spending 15 years in service as recommended by bank’s Staff Book.
The bank may likely be forced to pay the staff with additional penalties if it refused to settle out of court before February 2019.
As at the time of filing this report many litigations filed by many aggrieved staff against the bank are still pending at various Industrial Courts in Nigeria.
www.sojworld.com (c) November 27, 2018
Leave a Reply