Consolidated Bank Grants 60-Day Probation For Staff Of Collapsed Banks

The newly-formed Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited is offering former workers of the five collapsed banks a 60-day probation period to assess their employability.

This was contained in a letter handed to the employees of Unibank, Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank, Construction Bank and Royal Bank who were merged into the new entity.

“Dear employees we wish to welcome you to the Consolidated Bank Limited. As you aware, the Bank of Ghana has withdrawn the operating licenses of your bank and the Consolidated Bank Limited has assumed assets and liabilities of the bank.

“The purpose of this letter is to inform you that you will be working with the new bank for a period of 60 days during which time it will be possible for your employment status to be assessed. Based on this assessment, a determination will be made as to whether you will continue to be in employment with the Consolidated Bank limited. Kindly be reminded that you will still operate from your current workplace.”

The Bank of Ghana merged the five banks after it withdrew their operating licenses.

It subsequently appointed Nii Amanor Dodoo of KPMG as receiver for the banks.

Meanwile, labour analyst, Austin Gamey says the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited is breaking no labour law per this development.

“The reality is that the situation that the banks found themselves in is a kind of force majeure which is insolvency of a kind and if it is insolvency of a kind, then temporarily you are displaced.

“You are no more working with the XY bank therefore if they have been temporarily sent to the Consolidated Bank of Ghana, it cannot absorb all of them so they have to observe them and take employees they can afford to take . If they are telling them they are temporarily engaged, I think it is in order.”

The Bank of Ghana raised the minimum requirement for banks from GHc120 million to GHc400 million and gave them up to the end of 2018 to meet the target or risk being merged or have their licenses revoked.

Barely four months to the end of the deadline, the Bank of Ghana last Wednesday revoked the licenses of the five struggling banks and merged them into a new entity called the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.

BoG explained that some of the affected banks obtained their licenses using dubious meansand had non-existent capital.