Banks asked to take steps to reinstate terminated staff

The Bangladesh Bank has instructed banks to take necessary measures to reinstate their terminated employees.

In a notice on Thursday, it said banks would have to take necessary steps as per the rules to reinstate the employees who had been terminated without any specific and proven complaint or forced to resign between April 1 last year and September 15 this year.

It also asked banks not to terminate employees or force them to resign only for failing to achieve targets during the Covid-19 pandemic or incompetence.

Banks were asked to submit information within September 30 about the terminations and resignations of bankers from April 1 last year to September 15 this year.

The central bank said there would be panic among bank employees and their morale and work spirit would go down if employees were terminated amid the crisis caused by the pandemic.

As a result, talented and experienced people would be reluctant to work in the banking sector, which would be very harmful in the long run, it said.

The central bank recently received allegations from bank employees that they had been terminated or forced to resign without any specific and proven complaint.

Moreover, some employees were not given their due benefits after resignation, which prompted the central bank to issue Thursday’s notice.

In a 2015 circular, the Bangladesh Bank asked banks to stop arbitrarily terminating employees.

The recent activities of banks to terminate employees or force them to resign were a violation of the 2015 circular, the notice said.

In another circular last year, the central bank said banks would have to take measures to ensure that their employees were motivated to play a leading role in achieving the desired GDP growth and properly implementing the government’s coronavirus incentive packages.

Banks are forcing their employees to resign instead of motivating them, a high official of the central bank told The Business Post.

The Bangladesh Bank recently conducted inspections at Eastern Bank, City Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Standard Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, and BRAC Bank to find out information about terminations and resignations.

From January last year to August 9 this year, 3,313 employees of these six private banks quit.

Of them, 3,070 resigned voluntarily and 243 were terminated, said the Bangladesh Bank official.