Hon. Justice Paul Bassi of the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to pay N5.7bn terminal benefits to 1,116 workers of Trade Bank, Hallmark Bank, Gulf Bank and All States Trust Bank affected by the re-capitalization exercise carried out by the CBN in 2006 within three months.
The Court held that while CBN may have acted for the general good by raising the capital base of banks in the country, it should not be done at the expense of the former employees, awarded the sum of N10m as general damages against the CBN and NDIC.
From facts, the claimants had submitted that they were being owed terminal benefits and their employers’ banking licenses were revoked by the CBN which appointed the NDIC as the liquidator.
In defense, the CBN and the NDIC raised several objections, insisting among other that they were not the employers of the workers and the suit disclosed no cause of action against them, urged the Court to dismiss the case.
Delivering the judgment after careful evaluation of the submissions of both parties, the presiding Judge, Justice Paul Bassi dismissed the preliminary objections filed by the CBN and the NDIC for lacking merit.
Justice Bassi held that the revoking of the banking licenses of the non-consolidated banks by the CBN and NDIC interfered with the employment contracts of the bank workers, a contract which would ordinarily have run its natural course with the claimants being paid their benefits at the end.
The Court then ordered the CBN and NDIC to pay the workers within three months from the date of judgment failing which will attract 10 percent interest until liquidated.
