Nigerians have taken to Twitter to lament and berate banks over the salary and commission discrimination contract staff face while working for these financial institutions.
They expressed their consternation while answering a question posed by renowned journalist Oseni Rufai.
Rufai, who took to his Twitter handle, asked “If you are a contract staff in any Bank, what are the conditions like?”
Reacting to his question, Nigerians lamented the unfavorable, discriminatory, and biased salary packages contract staff get working in banks.
Also, they complained about the extra work burden they are made to face yet end with little or no compensation.
Commenting on the issue, Temi said, “As contract staff, the environment is very toxic. After working as contract staff for years, I did much of the work with little pay. You even go so far as to train the new, so-called core staff, who just graduated from university without any experience.
“The worst of it all is that they will put an age limit on recruiting while you have kept someone on contract for 5-10 years. You need experience. Where else can you get experience other than from those who have been working directly under you for years as contract staff?
“They won’t even see their result. The worst scenario right now is that a sector in the banking industry has increased the salary of Core staff since last month or so but has refused to increase the salary of contract staff who have been underpaid with a heavy work load. This is evil.
“Just imagine that kind of working environment. You have qualifications, but they won’t recruit contract staff but rather choose to recruit new intakes and expect the contract staff to teach them. Contract staff will go for exams and training, which they won’t still get”.
Obidient Yoruba lamented that as contract staff, despite being paid “peanuts”, one is expected to carry out the same functions as “full staff”.
He said, “As a contract staff, you do the same work as a full staff, overtime without pay most times. No official training is needed, but you must not make any mistakes on the job. You should be grateful for the peanuts you’re given because many would not think twice to be in your position”.
For Johnson Adah, who described the situation as a “Terrible experience”, he said, “You do the job, but somebody else is enjoying the money. I have removed the tie since to breathe freely”.
Ayo argued that “it depends on where you find yourself. While there is a cordial relationship between the outsourced and the “full staff” most times, the job and the salary make the difference so evident. Imagine doing the most work and getting paid N45,000 a month. Deplorable!”
Also, Daniel Willoughby berated banks for failing to provide palliative for staff in the face of the economic hardship faced by their workers as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy.
He said, “Crux of not having a labor force. The profits these banks make are enough to go around. A lot of contract staff are more experienced on the job than the core staff. Most of these banks don’t even have staff buses to ease the effects of this pandemic, yet they clamor about work-life balance”.
Furthermore, Ojebisi Ibukunoluwa stated that “the pay isn’t worth it; recently we got mail from our MD that the salary will be increased without stating cedars. Our greatest surprise is that they increase core staff salaries with a 100% increment, while contract staff salaries remain the same inside the same Nigeria”.
Others narrated how certain banks in the country increased the salaries of their core staff without extending such gestures to contract staff.
Pearl argued that the contract staff at Polaris Bank are going through hell when she said “contract staff are going through hell; they are shortchanged, and so many of them still earn the same salary without promotion. Yesterday, the bank increased the salaries of their core staff by 50% or more and still left out contract staff.
Don Zelensky also stated that “Polaris increased the salaries of full staff and left out the contract staff”. He called the it “a very wicked decision”.
“It is deplorable. The worst of them all is Polaris Bank Ltd where the management increased the salaries of the core staff by 100% while the contract staff didn’t get anything. The annoying thing is that we all got a letter of salary increment, but in their usual way, they only increased that of the core staff” Ila stated.
To Nekky, “First Bank is the worst of them all. Imagine saying they won’t increase their contract staff payment and that if the contract staff can’t pass the conversion exam and they are not happy with the salary they have earned, they can leave but they increased their useless core staff salary”.
Alphonso Keyinde, however, opined that “UBA is the worst.” Paying contract marketing staff 45k with crazy targets and degrading words on a regular basis at meetings. Contract staffing is the modern slave trade”.
However, koko Andrew Onyemach opined that the exploitation is not peculiar to banks alone. He argued that other private companies are guilty of such exploitation.
He said, “Not only contract staff in the bank alone have been underpaid. Including other private companies that underpay their contract staff, some don’t even pay leave allowance at all, not to mention salary increments.”.
He, however, urged the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to investigate such companies.
Ifeanyi Onumaegbu, on the other hand, urged the NLC and the Federal Government to completely end commission-based jobs in the country.
He said “Please help to stop contract staff in Nigeria and commission-based work without pay in Nigeria; they expect you to come every day as a staff, but they only pay you commission”.
