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It is the general declaration that human life is priceless and it is expected to be treated as such in every condition. This believe was also at the fore-front of governments’ order to both private and public hospitals that every effort must be put into use should anybody needs urgent treatment to preserve their lives. It is however sad that some supposedly big brands in the country are acting as if the life of some members of their staffs count for nothing.
This discussion was raise in Mushin axis of Lagos State recently and some traders and residents of the town pointed fingers of guilt at one of the leading banks in the country the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB).
In their argument they claimed that years back, a vehicle belonging to the GTBank allegedly suffer break failure while in motion and in an effort to steer the car away from running into the pedestrians and the roadside traders along the ever busy Mushin/Oshodi road, the car ran into the median demarcating the road and in the process knocked down a pedestrian who was standing to cross to the other side killing the young man in the process.
They continued in their narrations that even while the driver who suffered broken leg and some other degree of injury that sees to him not being able to fend for himself and his family was still struggling to get out the money approved for him to pay for his medical expenses, the bank had made sure their car involved in the accident has been cleared and fixed for use.
Though going after such is not the main issue the speed at which they go about it according to the people was so fast and it seems they put so much value on the car even more than the driver whose condition they said cannot be ascertained as at that period. That incident has been years back now and the bank presently are not employing drivers on their own as such has been outsourced.
If one thinks that the story will be different now that the bank is not directly involved with their drivers now one may have to have a rethink.
The story now is like the Yoruba proverbial witch who had an all girl children, the condition of service of their drivers is suicidal. We were reliably informed that drivers attached to the bank are treated like they are expendable wares some drivers in the pool of the bank narrates how the nonchalant attitude of those in their transport department toward fixing the cars wherever it is faulty is generally responsible for nearly all incident of accidents involving GTBank drivers.
One of the two companies handling recruitment of drivers was given as Ademakinwa Ademiluyi & Co, though information available said FedEx Express has been added but that cannot be confirmed as at the moment we are writing this story. Insider revealed that Ninety-five percent (95%) of the drivers in the bank’s driver’s pool were employed through outsourcing and were prohibited from Union activities as this will contravene the contract signed by their respective employers with the bank.
We further gathered that there is also no provision for health insurance while all the cars they are driving are given premium insurance even though their fixed take home is Forty-Five Thousand naira (N45,000) with no pension plan or any form of gratuity not minding the years spent working for the bank.
It is even worse as the source also stated how faulty vehicles are after it has been reported are forced on the drivers without it being fixed, in a situation our source explained that a vehicle with bad break after it was reported was left unrectified for 4 months with the driver being forced to run errand with it all these while till it got involved in a crash.
With the condition of service which runs through 7 days a week, no pension plan, no health insurance scheme, no chance of becoming a permanent staff, abolishing of trade union activities among the drivers and many other deliberate shortcomings in the treatment of the drivers while all the cars they are driving are given premium insurance is invariably saying the cars to the bank holds more value than the human driving it and this may be the reason faults like that of the car breaking system are scarcely attended whenever such was reported to those in charge of that department in the bank.
