Shouts of joy rented the air as the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to pay over N5.7bn in terminal benefits to over 1,000 bank workers.
The workers were those affected by the re-capitalisation exercise of 2006, under former CBN Governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, now governor of Anambra State.
RELIABLESOURCENG.COM reports that the money is to be paid within three months from the date of judgment, failing which it will attract 10 percent interest until liquidated.
Justice Paul Bassi made the order while delivering judgment on Monday in the case filed by 1,116 claimants, who had approached the court since 2018.
The court also ordered the CBN and the NDIC to pay another N10 million as general damages to the claimants.
Jubilation erupted from the representatives of the bank workers after the court delivered judgment in their favour.
It is a battle they have fought since the consolidation exercise of 2006 which saw banks recapitalised from N2 billion to N25 billion.
Their banks did not meet the recapitalisation requirements and subsequently lost their licenses to the CBN which appointed the NDIC as the liquidator.
The workers then sued the CBN and NDIC, demanding the payment of their terminal benefits.
The two defendants raised several objections, insisting among other things they were not the employers of the workers and the suit disclosed no cause of action against them.
In his judgment, Justice Bassi dismissed the preliminary objections of the defendants and held while they may have acted in the general good by raising the capital base of banks in the country, it should not have been done at the expense of the former employees.
By revoking the banking licenses of the non-consolidated banks, the defendants interfered with the employment contracts of the bank workers, a contract which would ordinarily have run its natural course with the claimants paid their benefits at the end, the court held.
The court then ordered the CBN and the NDIC to pay the workers within three months from the date of judgment, failing which the judgment debt will attract 10 per cent interest until liquidated.
