HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SHOW CONCERN OVER THE MASSIVE SACKING IN THE COUNTRY: ASK FG INTERVENTION

House of Representatives is seeking the Federal Government Intervention and consideration on ways to support big organisations in the country to pay their workers inorder to prevent a mass sacking.

At a plenary , the House of Reps debated the matter and said urgent steps must be taken to avert a massive job loss in the country.

Recall, a recent  viral video showing  Mr Herbert Wigwe, group managing director, Access Bank Plc saying that the lender will possibly cut down its contract staff by 70 percent, while those to remain will likely suffer a 40 percent slash in their salaries, including himself.

The lawmakers said if Access Bank is allowed to “lay off 23,990 employees [on its payroll] ,” which it said “may be the biggest lay-offs by any Nigerian employer”, it will have an impact that will be “catastrophic especially when followed by other banks.”

“Such business decisions will cause more stress and shocks across economy which is already struggling with low oil prices.

“A secondary effect of such an action will be that it will affect the purchasing power of significant segments of the population which will certainly impact negatively on our macro-economy,” the lower legislative chamber of the National Assembly said.

The Reps stressed that to avert this looming crisis, steps must be taken quickly by the federal government to support big employers of labour like Access Bank through economic packages in terms of “income support, tax credits or tax deferrals, short-term work schemes, wage subsidies and tax moratoriums on loan payments.”

In view of this, the lawmakers resolved to “set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate, monitor and liaise with corporate institutions with a view to possible interventions to reduce the wage burden on such organisations.

 Culled from the NIGERIAN COMMUNICATIONS WEEK