PHOTO CAPTION: Kariuki Ngari - Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer - Standard Chartered Bank Kenya Limited Disgruntled employees at the Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya have stepped forward to raise a litany of grievances against the current rogue management.
In a written statement of dissatisfaction addressed to our newsdesk on Monday, July 18, a section of staffers complained of working overtime without any compensation.
This is in total contravention of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which clearly states that if employees are not granted a 1-hour lunch break, they are entitled to overtime pay. On the contrary, StanChart has resulted in sneaky tactics to avoid honoring this clause.
For instance, they close doors at 3 pm to claim that they worked for fewer hours.
Workers have also raised concerns over increased efforts to stifle their voice and rights through the weakening of their union which currently lacks any recognized leaders.
This confusion has created the perfect loophole for the mistreatment of staff.
Anyone who tries to speak out is faced with heavy threats of retribution. "Hello, Cyprian. I am a staff member of Standard Chartered bank. I want you to highlight how the bank treats its unionized staff unfairly. Since COVID started, the bank has not been paying us over time, especially for hours worked during lunchtime. The CBA states that if they do not grant us 1-hour lunch, we are supposed to be paid overtime, regardless of working hours. They are closing the door at 3 pm just not to pay us, saying we have worked fewer hours. In fact, last year they did fresh interviews just to scare us that people will go home so that we don't push for our rights. They are working around the corner to kill the union in the bank. They want to move all staff out of the union. Currently, we don't have union leaders. They normally get frustrated. To add to it, the Banking union has become a dead duck. No longer fighting for our rights, yet we pay them from our salaries. The top managers are primarily women who are hellbent to fight the unionized staff in an effort to cut costs, yet themselves they earn millions in bonuses and we get less than half our salary as bonuses. Please Hide my identity as you normally do when you publish this. Thanks," the source writes.