Grace and Mercy Household Improvement Initiative – A Micro-Finance institution, dismissed staff and yet refused to pay his 3 Months Salary, Which is their way of treating their staff, by the Management.
Good Morning viewers,
Welcome to today’s edition of the ‘‘Report The Boss” interview. We have with us, someone who is dismissed this year without being paid his 3 Months salary, which to his knowledge could be only be influenced by his Immediate Line Manager. Ogunmodede Gbenga
Before we delve into the deal of the day, our Guest will tell us how the organizational structure is for us to understand what he’s saying.
So, Please, can we meet you, sir?
My name is Oluwaseun Elijah Taiwo, a graduate of Business Administration from Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti., married, with two children.
Alright, tell us about the organization you worked for and its structure?
Thank you, The Organization I worked for is called Grace and Mercy Household Improvement Initiatives. It’s a Micro-Finance institution. And their Hierarchical structure is like this; in Ascending order. Credit Officer (C.O)< Branch Manager (B.M.)< Area Manager (A.M.)< Senior Area Manager (S.A.M)< Head Of Field (H.O.F), now there is Management Information System (M.I.S) and Regional Manager, and so on. Going by the structure, the C.Os are the grassroots, we go to the field to mobilize people to come and get loans, once they sign up (registered), then we do what is called K.Y.C ( Know Your Customer/Clients) and, we disburse to the money to them, the process will take up 3, weeks before they could get the loan.
Mr. Seun, you’ve listed the hierarchy please, can you tell us how it works.
Yes, C.Os will report to the B.Ms, B.Ms will report to the A.Ms, the A.Ms will report the S.A.Ms, and that is how it goes.
So, Mr. Seun, have you, not a premonition, that you will be dismissed?
Sir, not at all. If I had, I would have tendered my resignation letter instead.
No Query or being called to the disciplinary department or, your organization don’t have one?
Yes, that is where the issue lies. The organization has given so much autonomy to the A.M. and S.A.M because they are the lines managers closer to the field, they do not checkmate the activities going on like in my case, the Dismissal letter giving to me is an old letter, like a dated letter, (3 weeks) before it was given am so sure of that, after I worked 3months, cos the B.M. gave me the letter on 19th of March, before then, my 2month Salary was pegged Jan and Feb., salaries and during this time the M.I.S manager who happens to be our former S.A.M ( Tajudeen Malik ) came around with A.M. Hassan, and both of them had a general meeting, gave us a clue on how to handle our portfolio, follow it up and understand what’s going on with it, Mr. Malik asked me why I did not go for B.M. Exams which I was called for, and told him what happened. And he said we are going to be punished by delaying our salaries for poor performance.
Mr. Seun, talking about your Salary, how much is it?
Initially, the salary was 65k but, there is a compulsory commitment the organization will ask you to sign due to default (non-payback of loan by your clients). If you don’t have a default, they won’t deduct it, but if you have defaults, they will deduct it, which is 20k, and before the resumption of the year 2020, the management increased the Salaries by 10k, which upped the salary to 75k.
What offense do you think could have warranted your dismissal?
Well, I don’t know any, in the letter giving to me, they wrote, Nonchalant attitude to work, which I disagree with before we swapped the portfolio my loan balance was over 11Million naira. Which could be regarded as second, the highest portfolio was Ogunbajo Victor, which has over 13 Million NGN, so please, how does that translate to a nonchalant attitude to work?. The letter also said I keep cash in hand to the tune of 1,240,000 NGN. Even a layman, would regard this as a fraud. I did nothing of such till the day I was dismissed, not at all, of course, I do keep cash in hand due to clients attitude to late payment and trying to avoid defaults, but never will I keep cash in hand to that amount, not even to up 50k, never. And one thing I could remember was that there was a day we were in a meet with our B.M. a junior colleague said something which annoyed me about Cash in Hand and the A.M. flared up, later I heard him saying ‘‘ Eni Ti A Fe Sun Je, Toun Fi Epo Ra Ara” like he’s been looking for a way deal with me before, now the opportunity has come, but I never thought it could my dismissal, God sees my heart, I have worked with 5 B.Ms, am sure that all of them will tell you that am never rude, am very lively, and fun to be with. I have worked with 3 A.Ms before A.M. Gbenga. Till now, I know nothing of my offense that warrants my dismissal without being paid my 3 months Salary.
Mr. Seun, did you get in touch with the Top officials or the Managements regarding this situation?
Yes, immediately this happened. I called Mr. Malik on the GSM call, not Whatsapp. He hung up on me when he heard my voice. I didn’t bother to get in touch with A.M. Gbenga cos I know he did the dismissal stunt, and it’s all around the organization that he loves doing that, sacking is his hobby…it seems he derives joy in doing that. I sent text Messages to HR as He doesn’t pick calls due to his busy schedule. And yes, I got nothing, till now, I got in touch with the Head Of Field. He only sympathized with me but, he did nothing and I also chatted with the Direct S.A.M., in charge of the whole 5 areas; S.A.M Nelson, she read the chat, she didn’t reply.
You said it’s A.M Gbenga’s joy to sack/dismiss people
Yes, As I said earlier, due to the Autonomy given to the A.Ms and S.A.Ms they will cook up something about you, tell the HR. And without a proper check, HR will send the dismissal letter. Which in my case, it’s the same pattern with an edited letter printed in black & White, Funny enough, the Dismissal/Sack letter always comes in Colour Letter Head paper, but not mine, it’s an OLD letter in Black and White, and another thing is that the date on the letter, is almost 3weeks older than the date I was giving, I don’t know why he couldn’t give me the letter himself before he left our area.
Mr. Seun, so what do you want us to do?
I waited till now to see if they would pay my 3months salary. I resumed on January 4th, I worked till March 19th before my dismissal without salary. I have a wife with 2 children to cater for. Please, if I may ask, how did they expect me to live with that, I have never seen such a height of Wickedness. They should pay my salaries and, if they don’t pay, you spread the news. Let the world know what the managements of Grace and Mercy Household Improvement Initiative and its Line managers are doing with the lives and Salaries of the C.O.s and the B.M.s ( Field Staff). Maybe, the Board of Directors of the Organization will work on the Management level after this and also they will be able to check what the Line Managers like A.M. Gbenga do being a Line Manager.
You said, you called the Line Managers, and Chatted with some of them?
Yes, I did I have evidence of the calls, Chats, and Text messages. Yes, I did I have evidence of the calls, Chats, and Text messages.
Mr. Seun, Have you been to this Organization’s Head Office to ask for your Salaries?
Nope, I didn’t bother to go cos the money was supposed to be sent to my Account but, no, it was sent to the Branch Account for a reason I don’t know. So it doesn’t make any sense to go to the Head Office again. They know what they are doing.
More so, I was expecting a reply from the management. I posted a write-up on the Group, which I was expecting, the Top Officers to show a kind of concern regarding my situation as a Family man, but, am so surprised to get nothing. That is Wickedness
Alright, Mr. Seun, we will do the necessary regards the issue, and we hope for better results.
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