Thousands of bank employees lose their jobs

More than 700 Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) employees lost their jobs in the third quarter when ACB drastically cut staff.

Banks have 1,001 tricks to fire workers. There are cases where managers are demoted so that workers feel "humiliated" and quit, and there are cases where people are promoted but are given huge targets that they cannot meet and have to quit.

Mr. Le Hung Dung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eximbank, spoke to the press on the evening of November 14 about information about staff cuts and the bank's business situation - (Photo: T.Dam)

Not only cutting bonuses, after many difficult years, banks have been forced to lay off a large number of employees right near the end of the year when business results have seriously declined. More than 700 employees of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) lost their jobs in the third quarter when ACB drastically cut staff. Eximbank also caused a "shock" when there was information that this bank would cut thousands of employees.

Previously, in the first six months of this year, at Vietinbank, BIDV, ACB and SHB, nearly 1,200 employees were forced to "leave" for various reasons. Two months ago, Mr. B. - former head of a transaction office at a small joint stock bank - wrote a resignation letter. "I was forced to do that because I didn't know how to complete the unrealistic targets imposed by the top," Mr. B. said.

In the past three years, Mr. B. has lost his job three times and is beginning to understand the banking profession. Many employees of this bank have also had to resign for a series of ridiculous reasons: the bank looked for ISO errors to find an excuse to fire them, and in some cases, even minor professional errors were also fired. "The bank has 1,001 ways to fire employees. There are cases where managers are demoted so that employees feel "humiliated" and quit. There are cases where employees are promoted but are given unrealistic targets so that employees cannot do them and are forced to write a resignation letter," said Mr. B.

But the simplest is to hit the salary. Mr. T. - who has just written a resignation letter from the bank where he has worked for three years - said that the bank's business target was too high and in the current difficult context it certainly would not be achieved, so his business salary was cut and he only received a fixed salary of 3 million VND/month.

“With this level, I can’t afford to pay for rent, electricity, water, and childcare, so I withdrew to find another opportunity,” said Mr. T. Speaking with us, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Toai, deputy general director of ACB, said that the number of employees leaving in the third quarter fell into three groups.

Group 1 is employees who find their income too low due to unsatisfactory business results, find better opportunities with higher income, so they quit.

Others were probationary employees, recruited by the bank to prepare for opening branches and transaction offices, but because the bank was not allowed to open more, they were forced to lay them off. The rest did not meet their business targets so they quit.

“Previously, the economy was good, so the bank increased its branches and transaction offices, so there was a need to recruit more employees. Now, due to the economic downturn, the bank has to narrow down its business activities,” said Mr. Toai.

Previously, after the arrest of Mr. Kien in August 2012, the bank's leaders voluntarily reduced their salaries by 25% to compensate for the salary fund instead of cutting staff. "This is to create conditions for staff to have more time to consider, those who find a better environment can voluntarily resign, instead of the bank proactively cutting, which will shock staff" - Mr. Toai said.

One of the “tricks” that banks use to force employees to quit is illegal transfers. A bank employee once sent an anonymous email “accusing” the bank of massive staff cuts and treating employees coldly when forcing them to quit.

Specifically, the HR department of the bank called the employees and announced that the financial situation in the first nine months of the year was not good, so they had to cut staff, and they were the ones who were cut, even though their labor contracts had not yet expired.

The email also accused the bank's HR department of forcing employees to write resignation letters instead of announcing their dismissal to avoid having to pay compensation under their labor contracts. The whistleblower also said that the bank only gave them three days to write their resignation letters. The HR department offered two options. One was to write their own resignation letters. The other was to be transferred to another position in an unconventional way and have their salaries reduced by more than 50% if they did not agree to the first option.

However, when responding to the press about the accusation, the leader of this bank did not admit it but said that personnel rotation is a very normal thing for businesses, especially in the banking industry. However, this bank admitted that it had conducted annual personnel evaluations and planned to transfer some personnel to suit the requirements of the system, on this occasion, some employees voluntarily wrote resignation letters for personal reasons.

Also related to the transfer, Mr. Le Hung Dung - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eximbank - said that the bank itself also received backlash when transferring employees from the "air-conditioned room" - the head office - to the direct business department. "Some people who are working in District 1, now transferred to District 2, complaining that it is not suitable is a normal reaction" - Mr. Dung said.

Talking to Tuoi Tre about the current staff reduction information, Mr. Le Hung Dung admitted that he is implementing a plan to cut staff due to difficulties in general business operations. “In previous years, when business was good, we recruited a lot, especially in the indirect department. This year, business is difficult, the old apparatus has become cumbersome, cutting staff is normal,” said Mr. Dung.

According to Mr. Dung, in order to cut staff to reorganize the apparatus, the head office must first set an example. Therefore, Eximbank has planned to transfer about 300 employees out of 1,000 employees at the head office to branches and transaction offices. This plan has been implemented since early September 2013, but according to Mr. Dung, only 48 employees have had their contracts terminated.

“If you are reassigned to another job, a little bit more difficult, and you complain, we will accept your resignation, there is no other solution. Some people also called me to ask why their children are selling goods, I said there is nothing wrong with selling goods, even my daughter sells goods” - Mr. Dung said and informed that in the long term, if Eximbank's branches and transaction offices are not operating effectively, with too many people and not enough work, they will be streamlined.

Currently, in addition to Eximbank headquarters, some branches have also been cutting staff such as My Tho branch (10% reduction), Ba Ria - Vung Tau branch, Dong Da branch and Ba Dinh branch (Hanoi)... "Depending on each branch and transaction office, we will reduce staff in parallel or after the headquarters. If we see that the results are poor compared to the apparatus, we must immediately reduce staff accordingly and not wait for anything" - Mr. Dung affirmed.

Along with the staff reduction, according to Mr. Dung, the leaders of units with low plan completion rates will have their incomes cut, with a maximum cut of 30%. “By 2014, Eximbank will implement the salary fund allocation for each unit. If the apparatus is streamlined, the income of employees will increase and vice versa. Based on the business requirements of each unit and the efficiency of each employee, the leaders of the units will decide on their personnel accordingly,” said Mr. Dung./.

According to vov