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The Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Union (BIG­WU) is de­mand­ing the im­me­di­ate re­in­state­ment of all Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP) work­ers it says were un­just­ly dis­missed.

In a state­ment to­day, the union con­demned what it called “dra­con­ian and ar­bi­trary” ter­mi­na­tions, say­ing it has so far record­ed 69 dis­missals across 12 re­gion­al of­fices. Many of those af­fect­ed, it said, have worked in the pro­gramme for 10, 15, and 20 years in po­si­tions in­clud­ing en­gi­neers, re­gion­al su­per­vi­sors, cler­i­cal of­fi­cers, sec­re­taries, and ac­counts clerks.

BIG­WU said the dis­missals were car­ried out with­out cause, charge, or hear­ing, in vi­o­la­tion of good in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prac­tice and in­ter­na­tion­al labour stan­dards. It ques­tioned why the Re­trench­ment and Sev­er­ance Ben­e­fits Act was not ap­plied and why due process was ig­nored.