6% of private bankers lost jobs during pandemic

The employees, who were either fired or forced to resign, represented nearly 6 per cent of the total workforce of 122,912 in the banking sector of Bangladesh as of June last year

Fifty-one private banks informed the Bangladesh Bank that they had sacked 1,292 employees while another 5,875 resigned.
They made the disclosure about the job cuts after the BB instructed them to inform it the number of employees who left banks during the period.
The central bank found that private lenders had not followed due diligence properly while cutting jobs.
"Banks mentioned that the employees had resigned willingly. But, the reality is different as banks had forced them to resign in most of the cases," according to a central bank probe report seen by The Daily Star.
The Daily Star talked to five retrenched employees who claim that their employers had not given any specific reason for their removal.
One banker faced termination in June 2020, a time when the pandemic was at its peak in Bangladesh and millions of people were rendered jobless due to the strict lockdown measures.
He said, "I achieved tremendous success during my career. As a result, I was made an executive vice-president when I was 43. But, the bank did not consider my achievements while terminating me."
"I don't know why I lost my job. The bank did not mention any reason."
Another former banker said his employer told him that it would terminate him if he did not leave.
"There is no scope to enjoy service benefits or manage another job in a bank if I faced termination. So, I resigned."
The banker informed the central bank about his predicament in order to get back his job.
The BB took into account his application and instructed the bank to reinstate him.
"But, the bank is yet to comply with the BB order," he said.
The central bank has received at least 328 applications from the retrenched employees. It carried out probes into a number of banks last year.
In many cases, banks created an unpleasant situation for the employees so that they left on their own, the BB probe reports said.
Some banks even did not issue any explanation or show-cause letter before firing the employees. Banks had threatened that the employees who would not resign would face lay-off
Many banks set difficult targets such as mobilising a higher amount of deposits for the employees during the pandemic when the economy faced aslowdown. The employers sacked the staff members on the excuse of failing to achieve the targets, the probe reports said.
Many banks claimed that the officials had left as they had better opportunities in other banks or other sectors, said a BB official.
"But, the claim is mostly baseless as the entire job market faced stagnation during the peak of the pandemic and the recruitment process came to a halt."
Analysts say banks could have avoided the large job cuts as their operating profit bounced back strongly last year.
The operating profit of 22 banks analysed by The Daily Star showed that all of the lenders except one posted higher profit in 2021 compared to a year ago.

collected from the daily star