Union leaders and sacked staff of Diamond Bank, on Thursday, barricaded the entrance to the bank’s headquarters and two other key branches in Lagos over alleged discrimination and sack of 200 workers.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) led the protesters, preventing customers from gaining entrance to the three offices.

The protesters displayed several placards with inscriptions such as: ‘Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Diamond Bank has closed door against workers, do not keep silent’; ‘Core staff or not, we are all workers of Diamond Bank Plc’; ‘Equals should be treated equally’.

The picketing, according to leaders of NLC and NUBIFIE, was prompted by the alleged refusal of the management of the bank to, among others, reinstate the sacked workers, even when the National Industrial Court and Ministry of Labour and Productivity, advised it to do so.

They were said to have arrived the bank’s head office few minutes past 8a.m., barricaded it and ensured that its operations were crippled.

Reacting to the development, the bank said it recently had “challenges” with the consultant entrusted with recruiting its support personnel.

“Third party support personnel posted to Diamond Bank have recently had challenges with their employer – C & M Exchange,” the bank stated. “As these issues are yet to be resolved, the third party personnel would like Diamond Bank to intercede to resolve the differences. Diamond Bank remains concerned about the working conditions and welfare of its entire staff, both contractual and full time. As such, we are currently discussing intensely with C & M Exchange to ensure they resolve the issues with their employees in a swift and amicable manner. Please, be assured that normal banking operations continue at our locations nationwide.”

NUBIFIE President, Danjuma Musa, said the picketing became imperative after the management demonstrated unwillingness to heed the order of the court to reinstate sacked workers.