CBE staff swears to strike if questions remain unsolved

The Workers Association of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) gathered last Saturday to negotiate with the Bank’s management about the ongoing disagreement over the new HR and Organizational structure applied.
Besides the Banks promise to fix the problems in the implementation of the new structural change the association called the official meeting to get a grant from the bank. Issues of revising the out dated salary adjustment and the respect of the collective agreement was raised in the meeting according to Haimanot Lemma, president of the Association.
“We will have a council meeting this month which is going to officially give a warning to the bank and which will decide the deadline for the response” he told Capital. “We will have a strike following the Labor Law of the country if the Bank failed to resolve the complaint with the time limit.”
The 50 years old workers association of the bank included every employee of the bank except those who are at the managerial level. The President mentioned that over 29,000 employees of the Bank are united with the questions raised.
The association also presents its questions to the office of the Prime minister at the beginning of this month, according to Haimanot.
The association was able to obtain the temporary ban of the reform which they are complaining to be implemented without salary listings.
The newly appointed Manager of the Bank who is referred as cooperative by the president was present at the meeting and promised the accelerated solution of the problem.
“We didn’t ask salary increment for the new structural change but it didn’t even include our previous salary” said Himont Lemma, the head of the association. “But, continuing with their previous salary wouldn’t be fair for the employees who are assigned to merged responsibilities”.
The current salary scale which was studied to serve for five years is expired according to Haimanot.
The 99 members of the council who represent the every region of the bank will official announce the deadline.
The 75 years giant has more than 50,000 employees currently with its 1,240 branches and half a trillion birr total asset.