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Saturday, May 31, 2025

Republic Bank Ltd to repay 23 workers who refused to work in ‘hazardous conditions’

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1040 days ago
20220726
Republic Bank Ltd.

Republic Bank Ltd.

Work­ers of Re­pub­lic Bank Tu­na­puna Branch have scored a vic­to­ry against their em­ploy­er, Re­pub­lic Bank Ltd, over the work­ers’ re­fusal to work af­ter a man­ag­er test­ed COVID-19 pos­i­tive last year, and the com­pa­ny is­sued warn­ing let­ters and docked their pay in re­sponse.

A re­lease from the work­ers’ trade union rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU), re­ports that the Min­istry of Labour found in favour of the work­ers, and the bank is now re­quired to ex­punge the warn­ing let­ters from the work­ers’ files, and pay back the de­duct­ed salary ei­ther on or be­fore Ju­ly’s end.

“This vic­to­ry be­longs to the tenac­i­ty of the work­ers and the faith­ful shop stew­ards at RBL Tu­na­puna Branch, whose ac­tions stayed con­sis­tent with the pre­cise ad­vice pro­vid­ed by the Union, and which ul­ti­mate­ly kept them safe and well pro­tect­ed not on­ly from a haz­ardous virus but al­so from a vin­dic­tive act of in­tim­i­da­tion,” the re­lease from BIG­WU said.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the BIG­WU state­ment on the mat­ter…

On the 10th of De­cem­ber 2021, the work­ers of Re­pub­lic Bank Tu­na­puna Branch dis­cov­ered that their man­ag­er con­tract­ed COVID-19 but was phys­i­cal­ly in and around most of their work­sta­tions in the build­ing be­fore be­ing of­fi­cial­ly di­ag­nosed and sent on con­fine­ment.

The shop stew­ards ap­proached the Bank seek­ing to have the premis­es shut down and prop­er­ly sani­tised for the health and safe­ty of them­selves and the cus­tomers, but the Bank re­fused, forc­ing the work­ers to evac­u­ate the build­ing and re­fus­ing to work in the un­safe en­vi­ron­ment.

Mr. Ja­son Brown, the 2nd Vice Pres­i­dent of the Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU) guid­ed the work­ers to cov­er them­selves legal­ly un­der sec­tion 15, 16 and 17 of the OHSA and im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed the Bank to se­cure the pro­tec­tion of the work­ers.

How­ev­er, the Bank nev­er re­spond­ed, leav­ing the 23 work­ers to lan­guish in the car park (base­ment) of the build­ing for the en­tire day.

On the 26th of Jan­u­ary 2022, with­out any pri­or dis­cus­sions, the Bank is­sued warn­ing let­ters to all the work­ers of the Tu­na­puna Branch and ad­vised them that they will be de­duct­ing that day from their salary and then pro­ceed­ed to do so.

The Union im­me­di­ate­ly wrote to the Bank and ad­vised if the warn­ing let­ters were not with­drawn and the work­ers not re­paid, that the Bank would face le­gal ac­tion, but the Bank stood firm in their de­ci­sion.

The mat­ter was re­ferred to the Min­istry of Labour and the work­ers were again rep­re­sent­ed by Mr. Brown, who used the pro­vi­sions of the OHSA and the Bank’s own fail­ures in his ar­gu­ments. The Bank ca­pit­u­lat­ed and ad­vised the Min­istry that the warn­ing let­ters will be ex­punged from the work­ers files and the salary de­duct­ed will be re­paid to the work­ers on or be­fore the end of Ju­ly 2022 and signed off a Mem­o­ran­dum of Agree­ment to that ef­fect.

This vic­to­ry be­longs to the tenac­i­ty of the work­ers and the faith­ful shop stew­ards at RBL Tu­na­puna Branch, whose ac­tions stayed con­sis­tent with the pre­cise ad­vice pro­vid­ed by the Union, and which ul­ti­mate­ly kept them safe and well pro­tect­ed not on­ly from a haz­ardous virus but al­so from a vin­dic­tive act of in­tim­i­da­tion.

COVID-19Republic BankBIGWUMinistry of Labourworkers


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