Bank Cuts Salaries By Half

| Monday June 17, 2013 00:00

 

It does not matter how much business they bring in from new loans they manage to attract, so long as they fail to bring in a target of five credit card applications, they lose 50 percent of the commission for the whole month.

A sales rep who quit the bank after being a victim of the bank's new sales strategy told The Monitor that she has been fighting the bank to give her all her dues. She says that the bank had assured her they will pay her back the money they deducted. But another sales rep still at the bank told The Monitor that she expects to be paid P6,000 after another P6,000 was deducted for failure to reach the credit card target. The sales rep said she had managed to attract four applications, missing with just one.

However, the Standard Chartered Bank sales rep revealed that from the five credit cards applications she has to reach, she stands to gain only P500, that is P100 from  each card, compared to tens of thousands of Pula she earned as commission from other bank sales.

The Monitor is informed that as a result of this incentive started by the bank two months ago, one of the affected sales rep has filed a case at the industrial court. A  trade union official who is assisting the affected Standard Chartered Bank employee confirmed the development and described the practice as out of order and against labour practice.

Responding to the allegations the bank's spokesperson Tummy Ramsden yesterday said this new incentive is only applicable to contracted sales executives of the bank and a few other contracted employees, saying it does not cover permanent staff. She did not state the figure. She said the new incentive was implemented with prior notice and  sign off.

Indeed the sales executives The Monitor talked to confirmed they signed off a copy of the notice to implement the new incentive, but they say they were asked to sign to confirm that they have seen the copy that was circulating.

The Monitor is informed that the matter has already reached Bank of Botswana and the bank's union, courtesy of the affected staff.