Saturday shift is voluntary

The bank’s position was stated in a media release issued on Monday in response to allegations from the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU) that RBC was extending workers’ hours to include Saturdays.

The release said the event, which is scheduled to begin next month, is aimed at easing the stress of elderly customers who visit the bank to cash their pension cheques on the Monday after the month-end.

The bank said, “We have asked employees to volunteer for the additional paid shift so that we can support this special event.

Those who qualify will be paid overtime for working. As the shift is voluntary, those branches where employees do not volunteer will not open.” Addressing claims of worker exploitation by BIGWU president Vincent Cabrera, RBC said the claims were unfounded, and a number of members of staff had welcomed the Saturday event “Our RBC values inform everything we do. These values are at the core of every decision. We hold ourselves to a high standard of acceptable behaviour and do not – and would never – exploit our colleagues,” the release stated.

Newsday spoke to BIGWU’s labour relations officer Sharon Miller, who called the claims “an unequivocal lie.” She said she had received complaints from staff that management had been pressuring them to take the Saturday shift without any promise of overtime pay.

“It is not voluntary,” she said.”We have workers in Tobago who told their manager that they won’t be able to come out that Saturday, and their managers told them that unless you come out that Saturday they will be chaired. Management is holding the contracts of these workers over their heads.”