A Swiss bank may pull out of The Bahamas as early as June leaving three Bahamians who have cumulatively nearly 60 years experience at the bank without jobs and with no pension or severance pay, according to inside sources.
Overseas Union Bank & Trust (Bahamas) Limited has been without a general manager since last year November after the former general manager resigned, sources say.
The Central Bank has reportedly given the company until June of this year to appoint a manager or have its licence revoked.
But one senior official at the bank said today that as far as he was aware there are no plans to move operations from The Bahamas and said that if it were staff would be compensated as required by law.
But a source in the bank told the Bahama Journal that bank officials have already transferred its $4.5 million in reserves out of the country.
Additionally, insiders report that the bank's clients have been telling them that there are plans to move the bank's operations from The Bahamas.
Some speculate that the bank's operations will be moved to the Cayman Islands where one of the bank's directors is based.
Insiders also say that the bank has generated no new business and has losses reportedly up to $502,000. The failure to appoint a general manager also has some of the staff stupefied as there is reportedly a qualified Bahamian employed there who functioned as a general manager from 1998 to 2000.
The Bahamian workers are members in the Bahamas Financial Services Union (BFSU) which is making representations on behalf of the staff to the Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Peet.
General Secretary for the BFSU Lashon Sawyer said, "We are concerned that another bank is just raping the economy. We have asked the government on more than one occasion…[to address the matter] and we have yet to receive a confirmation of the recognition of those employees," she said.
She opined that the employees would be left "high and dry" with no pension plan or redundancy packages and questioned the state of the country's financial services industry.
"They would just get the minimum required by law after having given some 60 years combined in service to this company," Ms. Sawyer said.
Sources told the Bahama Journal that the bank has no pension plan for its Bahamian staff although the foreign staff does as required under Swiss law. They also said that no raises have been received in ten years. A medical plan was introduced in 1994.
Overseas Union Bank & Trust was sold by its parent company IHF- Internazionale Holding Fiat, S.A.- which is headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland to its sister company Banca Union de Credito in January, 2002.
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
