There is ongoing drama in the United Bank for Africa (UBA) as contract staff of the bank’s Customer Fulfilment Center (CFC) have accused their bosses of harassment, bullying and unethical practices.
Under the moniker ‘Flourish Adeleke’, staff wrote to the bank’s management and copied their bosses, but the bank did not take this move very kindly.
In response to the March 28 email report they sent to Tony Elumelu, UBA’s CEO, management withdrew the server access of at least 10 staff members insiders say were suspected of sending the email.
FIJ obtained a copy of this email from insiders. It was titled ‘Lack of acknowledgement and employee welfare, maltreatment and bullying of staff, unsafe working conditions & threat to life, unfair & arbitrary punishments, unrealistic targets and excessive workload, verbal abuse, and hostile leadership’.
“Contract staff, despite their status, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Unfortunately, this is not the case in CFC, where management engages in outright bullying and threats,” the email reads in part.
They accused Uzoamaka Onyeka, Head of the UBA CFC, and Oluchi Akaeme, CFC Unbound Unit Manager, of harassment.
“Under the leadership of Uzo and Oluchi Akaeme, the workplace has become a center of bullying, maltreatment, and intimidation, creating an atmosphere of fear and distress among staff, with Oluchi Akaeme being the main perpetrator,” the email read further.
“Oluchi routinely bullies and threatens employees. She has openly stated that she will ‘deal with’ staff, warning them that they have ‘seen nothing yet’ just because she does not like them. Uzo goes as far as calling employees derogatory names, including ‘GOATS’, emphasising that they will be treated as such.”
In a separate email sent on Friday, the staff said when their performances drop, the management humiliates them by pasting their pictures and sending them emails branding them ‘Fatal King’, ‘Fatal Queen’, ‘King/Queen of Escalations’ and other derogatory names.
They also accused Onyeka and Akaeme of seizing their phones and locking them away for an entire weekend.
“On a particular Saturday, Oluchi and Uzo demanded that everyone submit their phones. After compliance, Oluchi locked them away and left the office, despite not working weekends. Without proper communication, she deprived adults of their phones for an entire weekend. Phones were only returned on Monday, with some employees receiving theirs even later in the week, forcing them to come to the office on their off days just to retrieve them,” they wrote.
Via the email, staff also claimed one Enoch, a security guard, was in the habit of doing routine checks at night and chasing staff home if they were on the premises, even if it was midnight.
Copied in this email were Elumelu, Oliver Alawuba; UBA Managing Director, CFC, KPMG and PWC.
On Thursday, FIJ sent an email to Ramon Nasir, the bank’s Public Relations Officer. Nasir wrote back to say he was looking into it. A day later, he wrote back with the same message.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Nasir said he had spoken with the management of CFC, and the bank was investigating, but he disagreed with some of the claims.
“Some of these people don’t want to work,” Nasir said.
“They come to work and spend two hours doing their work and waste the rest of the time. We installed CCTV and found that some of them poo on the floor, wear slippers to work and do all sorts of things.”
At about 5:44 pm, Oyebanji Aloba, who identified himself as a member of the bank’s investigation unit, responded to the anonymous email for the first time.
Aloba requested that they provide the name of the security officer and give more information.
On Saturday, FIJ learnt that the management instructed security to screen identity cards of staff to ensure only approved staff were allowed into the building. At least 10 staff members lost access. Insiders told FIJ these were long-serving staff who had spent over a year with the company.
”The management believes they were the ones behind the anonymous email,” insiders told FIJ.
FIJ obtained a copy of their employment contracts.
According to the contract, termination would occur for probationary staff only after the company had issued them a two-week notice or two weeks worth of salary. For confirmed staff, it was one month.
The management is yet to confirm if these staff members have been fired, but they no longer had access to the company at press time.
Source: FIJ
