The Bangladesh bank has directed commercial banks to reappoint the employees they laid off or forced to resign during the coronavirus period. In a recent circular the central bank asked all banks to take necessary steps to reappoint all such officers who lost jobs from April 1 2020 to September 15 this year, which is the corona period despite there being no specific reason. The banks have also been instructed to provide information on all laid off employees by September 30 saying banks cannot lay off employees without any proven complaints. The central bank has taken the move in response to complaints of bankers that they were fired or forced to resign without proven complaints.
In our view, the central bank has rightly pointed out that such laying off of employees is likely to create backlash such as bankers may lose confidence in the profession which will in turn discourage talented people from joining banks. The Bangladesh Bank has said no one can be fired or forced to resign only because of failing to meet business targets. Mentionably around 3,313 employees from six private banks resigned or were forced to resign from January 1, 2020, and August 9 this year. Most banks began layoff of employees in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic apparently anticipating less profit at a time when big businesses almost stopped big borrowing as a fallout of the pandemic.
They feared as the lending rate has come down to single digit, their profit may also become halved. So they resorted to sacking employees to cut expenditure by reducing salary and such other allowances. Who will employ them at their mid-career. Banks have moreover earned good profit at the year-end. It is unethical to sack employees only to reduce costs. Most banks suffer from bad loans that directors or big businesses take against fake projects. Some people have laundered tens and thousands of crores of bank money and launderers are moving at large. We must say once a person has been hired he is invariably part of the business. Moreover, sacking people during the peak pandemic period was inhuman. We would say Bangladesh Bank has taken the right step.
