Fired banker says Stan Chart's monthly target is ridiculous

Staff Writer | Monday June 24, 2013 00:00

 

Fired for poor performance, Kabelo Matongo, consumer banking, SME sales, in his Industrial Court case, for unfair dismissal also accuses the bank of wrongly calculating his terminal benefits.The former employee, who reveals that he earned P26,460 in his one-year contract, demands to be paid for the remainder of his contract that is to say, five months, and other benefits.

Matongo is questioning why he was singled out for the sack while nobody had reached the target.The complainant also says his performance was reviewed in December, when he was on a two-week leave.Matongo, whose contract was terminated on 5/01/2011, claims it was ripped apart without due notice and describes the bank's action as swift and brutal. 'Immediately my supervisor took away my access card...I couldn't access the Human Resources department to discuss the dismissal package.'

The former sales agent narrates how he then resorted to persistent travels to and from the bank and how after several visits senior management decided to pay him a month's notice and other terminal benefits.Still unhappy with the bank's offer, Matongo says - in the papers filed with the Industrial Court - that he then took up the matter with the Depatment of Labour for mediation and then for arbitration.

The banker claims that it was while at arbitration that the bank served him with notice of termination, on 10/01/2012.Although the arbitrator ruled in favour of Standard Chartered Bank, Matongo claims this is a clear case of unfair dismissal. He states that procedural and substantive fairness means that an employer must notify the employee of his allegation then give the employee reasonable time to prepare his case. Matongo claims that finally the employee must then be given opportunity to answer to his case at a disciplinary hearing.

The complainant claims it was a wrongful act by management to fire the employee verbally on 5/1/2011, who was only given a proper notice of termination at the District Labour Office during the case hearing which was held on 13/4/2012, three months after he was dismissed.