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Gerald Fenech
Larger commercial banks have reacted immediately to the recent appeal made by the Church’s Commission for Justice and Peace to alleviate the plight of those workers who have lost their jobs in the past days due to re-location of work. The Commission has proposed that banks should consider offering a moratorium on loan repayments for textile factory workers who ended up redundant.
A spokesman for Bank of Valletta said that in previous cases of mass redundancy, the bank is sympathetic with customers who have fallen on hard times and has also offered similar schemes in the past.
“We can confirm that the Bank has already taken the necessary action to support its customers who are employed at VF and Bortex. BOV understands the difficult times these customers are going through. This support from our end includes arrangements to defer loan repayments until our customers find alternative employment”, the spokesperson added.
A similar stance is being taken by HSBC who also reiterated that they had offered a similar scheme in the past for redundant workers from Denim Services, which closed down in 2005
“Yes, on VF we are expecting a meeting with employees to be fixed by the company’s GM in the next few days, and on Bortex we will also be meeting the redundant employees in the near future. As we had done with Denim Services employees, and on the bank’s initiative, we will be offering a moratorium on loan repayments for a number of months”, a spokesperson for HSBC told Business Today.
Looking to lead by example, APS Bank already has similar arrangements put into action, apart from offering significant discounts on initial and legal fees for loans taken up by first-time buyers.
Speaking to Business Today, Commission Chairman Godfrey Leone Ganado explained that social conscience and solidarity applies all banks relative to the profits made by these individual banks.
Leone Ganado was also scathing on the issue of an employer’s ethical responsibility towards employees that are kept in the dark about their job prospects until the last minute.
“All employees operating in a globalized environment where the bottom line is profitability have to understand that ongoing training outside their skills area is a must if they wish to retain mobility when companies either close down or relocate to maximise their profits, as is the case with VF.
However, when making a person redundant, the company should always take the individual’s dignity into consideration. It is unacceptable for an employee to continue being paid overtime and kept in the dark till the very last minute on the decision to close down or re-locate to a cheaper production destination”.
Leone Ganado insisted that no serious company could ever justify not having a contingency plan in place when taking drastic decisions that affect the human dignity of workers and the livelihood of their families. He also insisted that crisis management in such cases was thoroughly unacceptable. |
