High Court Orders Standard Chartered Bank To Pay Staff Benefits
On Friday 6th October 2023, the High Court of Sierra Leone, presided over by the Honourable Mrs. Justice Hannah Bonnie, ordered Standard Chartered Bank Sierra Leone to pay within 7 days the sum of NLE 124,018,730.55, being the United States Dollars equivalent of $5,536,550.47 plus 10% of that sum, into an account to be opened at Sierra Leone Commercial Bank to be managed by the Master and Registrar of the High Court.
The case came about after 51 staff of Standard Chartered Bank Sierra Leone took the Bank to Court in the case of FELIX BERETHE AND OTHERS v. STANDARD CHARTERED BANK SIERRA LEONE; for its failure to agree on the payment of terminal benefit entitlements, which the staff have claimed they are entitled to.
Osman Jalloh, Zainab Dura Kamara, Ida Williams, Frederick Bockarie, Abubakarr Kamara, Muctarr Bah of the law firm OJP Legal and Augustine Marrah, Henrietta Kargbo of Marrah & Associates appeared for the 51 staff, while Ransford Johnson and Jamila Benjamin of Lambert & Partners appeared for the Bank.
The Learned Justice delivered her ruling after hearing extensive argument from lawyers on both sides.
Information reaching this press revealed that the Bank was sold to Access Bank for 20 million dollars. The CEO of the Bank, Yetunde Oni, also reported recently that the profits made for the year ended December 2022, surpassed all profits made in the Bank’s 129 years existence. She credited such profit margins to the huge support from customers and the staff for performance against all odds and sense of expertise, combined with resilience in the challenging circumstances in Serra Leone.
Investigation conducted by this press revealed that while the Bank is dilly-dallying to agree and pay staff entitlements, CEO Oni is to be paid a whopping sum in excess of 15 billion Leones, as end of service benefit alone, not to talk of redundancy and other entitlements.
The question then is: why should hard working Sierra Leoneans who have been with this institution for over 30 years, not be paid and fairly compensated for their services?
Accordingly, legal experts knowledgeable about issues of this nature, say that failure by the Bank to comply to with the Court’s order could result in the Bank being held in contempt of court.
It remains to be seen what the Bank would do, given the Bank’s motto is, Here For Good.
