A reader has sent us this email..
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When the financial crisis hit us back in September, the only things people talked about were the political and economical chaos happening in our country. In December, the chaos became more serious, with huge companies being on the verge of bankruptcy. Companies started cutting costs, one cost being reducing salaries and terminating contracts. People were actually afraid that they would be the next in line to get fired.
As for the Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK), things were great. When the whole economy was collapsing, CBK was stable, shown by the market value of the share, which does not go below 1 KD. People used to come to me and remind me of how lucky I am to be working in CBK – “Kuwait’s safest bank.”
Well let me tell you something about Kuwait’s safest bank …
This is taken from people working at Commercial Bank of Kuwait:
It seems the clever people running CBK have decided to cut costs because of the financial crisis – so they have terminated (fired) EVERY single staff member, and then rehired some of them with new permanent contracts without bonuses, or most benefits, and with reduced salaries. If you don’t like it, no problem, try to find a job these days …
It seems other banks are watching to see if this works out so that they can do it too.
I know that some people have been affected more then others by these decisions, but to be frank the whole economy is facing a financial crisis so reducing salaries and firing people is the normal thing to do during a depression.
But there is one important point that is not mentioned above and is the most important point of all regarding staff indemnity. For people that don’t know how the staff indemnity works, a quick basic explanation is that when you retire from an entity, a bank in our case, they compensate you with a big bonus (depending on the years of service). In the case of CBK by terminating contracts and signing a new one, your staff indemnity will be gone. All your years of service will be gone and you have to start all over again. I forgot to mention that in order to collect your staff indemnity you have to have at least 5 years of service and your basic salary must be above 2000 KD. So for the people that have less then 5 years experience they will have to start all over again just like a fresh graduate. They have to wait another 5 years to get the staff indemnity benefit, and who knows, maybe after they start all over again, CBK might do the same thing all over again.
To summarize, what CBK has done has ruined its reputation as one of the leading banks of Kuwait. What they have done is unethical, illegal, and stupid, as they will lose a lot of loyal, experienced staff. If they think that they can get away with their illegal implements, then they are wrong. We will not be quiet. The law will defend our rights.
Regards,
a CBK Employee
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Update:
It seems that Mark has posted about it earlier
Posted By:
FAH
April 12th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
الله يستر يا جماعة
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April 12th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
[...] Buzberry just posted a letter from a CBK employee which you can read [Here] Print Email Apr 12, [...]
April 13th, 2009 at 12:13 am
Wallah for me am a CBK staff and am so surprised and I don’t know most of the staff are seeking jobs in other banks and i heard that Gulf Bank is giving a good offer to us so if the bank can sacrifice us it’s OK with me or start my own business, although I do have a two thousand loan and I’ll see what to do with it
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April 13th, 2009 at 6:57 am
So what happened with people’s unused vacation days, and air tickets? Did employees lose out on those too?
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April 13th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Actually, under Article 54 of Kuwait Labour Law, if your employer terminates your employment you are entitled to terminal service indemnity of:
1) ten days wages for each of the first five years of employment and 15 days wages for each year after that (or pro rata’d as appropriate)for workers paid daily/weekly/hourly/per piece.
2)15 days wages for each of the first five years of employment and one month wages for each year after that (or pro rata’d as appropriate)for workers paid monthly.
You do not lose the right to such indemnity unless your employment is terminated for one of the reasons set out in article 55, which include:
a) comitting a falt causing serious loss to employer
b) repeatedly disobeying employers instructions (except where health and safetuy is concerned) – and after employer has followed company policy of disciplinary action
c)absent from work for seven days with no legal reason
d)convicted of a crime concerning honesty, honour or morality
e)commits an act against public morality in place of work
f)assaults a fellow worker during or because of work- and after employer has followed company policy of disciplinary action
g) breaches his employemnt contract or Kuwait Labour Law
h)it is proved s/he used fraud to obtain employment
i)reveals trade secrets
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April 13th, 2009 at 9:39 am
regardless, these days we should individually be careful and prepared, today the more cash you have, the more safe you will be, at least, when you are fired you will still be stable and secured!
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April 13th, 2009 at 10:17 am
STRIKE CBK STAFF STRIKE… BRING THEM TO THERE KNEES!!!
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S.Abbas Reply:
April 13th, 2009 at 11:12 am
The Banks are showing huge amount of profits at the end of 1st quarter this year so what base CBK or any other institution is laying off their staff.
The banks and other such public institutions has moral responsibility towards their staffs. If the bank is going in losses then the staff retrenchment is justified.
What a good organization should do is cut the administration cost first instead of directly targetting their own staff.
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April 13th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Is this real? This sounds like an urban legend. My apologies but this is too good to be true…
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April 13th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
CBK does bad with their old staff too. They were giving full settlement to the staff who resigned but suddenly they stopped with out any clarification. Again, for few they gives if concerned big boss favour. HR – oh ! what to say ………!
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April 13th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Its very sad that CBK are taking these steps and leaving their staff without indemnity! There must be lawful steps which must be taken to clear this up.
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April 13th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I can’t but agree with what’s written above, as an employee of CBK i do indeed feel taken advantage of by such an act which to my understanding is indeed an “illegal” act the illegal part is the “take it or leave it” whereby if you do not want to sign the new contract, then you are officially laid off.
However, with regards to the endimenty, we do actually get our full indeminty the moment our termination is officially signed. Hence, what’s written above with regards to the endiminty is not quite precise.
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April 13th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I highly priase the person that published the above, it takes a lot. As an employee, I assure the publisher that the thoughts shared does resemble what most of us are feeling and we are all or to be accurate most of us (employees at cbk) are proud of such a publishment. Let’s hope the messege gets delivered and some action is taken. I think the next step is that the media (newspapers) should start talking about this act. Other banks should not consider following such actions.
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April 13th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I am also a CBK employee, what has been said above is not true, no staff has been terminated without a good reason ( non performar, sick, or 65 years old ) , those who were terminated, got paid 3 months salary, plus their endiminty in full, plus all their benfits. CBK does plan to, nor it did have a mass termination. I signed the new contract and it has better conditions for me, my past service is also accounted for, so i don’t know where did ” a CBK employee” get his information from. I spoke to HR and i was assured that the informations in most of the information in posts are not correct.
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Anonymous Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 11:04 am
excuse me, what’s your nationality pls???
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April 13th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
in the above post : This statement “CBK does plan to, nor it did have a mass termination ” should be “CBK does NOT plan to, nor it did have a mass termination”
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April 13th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Please people, get your facts right before seeking publicity. Consult your manager or HRD if you have any questions but publishing incorrect facts is not helping anyone, especially not CBK. Look at it this way, at least you will be offered a new contract, which means you have the option to take the money and leave or stay with the bank that has been generous in the past. It’s that easy.
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April 13th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
It is true that by being offered a new contract one would have the option to take his/her indeminity and leave or stay with the bank that has been generous in the past.
YET, and the disappointing point is that in such un-normal circumstances, and while we as employees are supportive to the Bank’s Management and their Decisions hoping for a better future believing that all is done for a good reason, in return when employees are hesitant about signing their new contracts due to reasons such as lack of experience in the legality of contracts, and need a friend, family, or advisor to be with them and talk to before signing, or require to take the contract to be reviewed before signing on it, I believe that such a request should not be refused. Such refusal is un-justified and if any, causes discomfort in employees thoughts. Why such harsh actions? such actions causes a lot of demotivation from Loyal Employees. It is true that when signing the new contracts, a legal advisor is present, yet one should keeep in mind that legal advisor is a CBK Employee hence, he is there (on the bank’s side)
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April 14th, 2009 at 1:57 am
i guess the title speaks for itself.. its CBK complaining about CBK.. nothing more ,, nothing less..
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April 14th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I wonder for the people that are defending the bank are you part of the HRD or PR in the bank ?
the Author of “a letter from a CBK employee” is right
why wont you give your staff a copy of thier benifits ? why do they have to sign a paper stating they recieved all thier staff endiminty when actually they didn’t ?
and the person stating they signed the contract and it had “better conditions”, didn’t you notice that all you got in the new contract was your base salary? where did all my allownces go?
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April 14th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
its really unfair…
for me i will try to find anew job with allownces and bounes .
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JJ desoza Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
good luck,
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April 15th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
it is interesting how CBK doent value their employee’s anymore and easily let go of them.. They don’t even put an effort in maintaining their loyal employees… GOOD LUCK CBK
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April 17th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Hey buz, I just wrote a post about the topic on charts and numbers and would just like people to get a clearer understanding of the contracts effects.
Here is the link:
http://chartsandnumbers.com/2009/04/13/cbk-offers-employees-no-promises/
thanks and keep up the great work.
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April 18th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
http://www.alwatan.com.kw/Default.aspx?tabid=206&article_id=498870 <– it’s very interesting how ppl can play up with words to manipulate facts.
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