(CMR) CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank and CIBC Bank and Trust Company (Cayman) have made at least 13 Caymanian workers redundant this month according to CMR sources. Last week we were notified that the entire debt collection department was made redundant with no notice leaving one woman unemployed after close to 25 years of service with the bank.
Now it has been confirmed that additional persons from the funds' department, trust department and operations team have also been let go from the organization. Some persons have been given until July with additional terminations pending. Three persons from the debt collection department were terminated along with three from the trust division.
Last May a boss in the debt collections department was retired and since then the team was “micromanaged” out of Barbados. Inside sources indicated that they were given a hard time under this new arrangement because the “Barbadians are prejudiced against Caymanians”. Restrictions were put in place such as staff were no longer permitted to email clients without it first being vetted by the team in Barbados.
Monday, April 12 they were informed that would be their last day working with the bank and they were able to retrieve their personal items before leaving for the day.
The three team members in the debut collection department including three Cayman women with one having 24 years with the bank, another having 14 years and the young being there for some five years. They were all senior team members and one is currently eight months pregnant.
Complaints have been levied against the human resources department in Cayman with people calling them “unsupportive” of the local workers. One person shared:
“we were made to feel that it was easier for us to lower our head and not complain” about anything.
When persons from CIBC FirstCaribbean Trust were made redundant they were immediately escorted to the parking lot by security. Some noted the embarrassing manner was completely unnecessary. For some odd reason, the trust division was paid the bare minimum the law requires whilst the debt collection department was given three times what the labor law requires. No explanation appears to be forthcoming for this disparity.
Sources indicate that the work will be outsourced to Barbados and Jamaica. Some are concerned that this means they are less likely to work in collaboration with homeowners to save their homes.
CIBC Bank and Trust Company (Cayman) Limited has offices in the Cayman Islands, Bahamas and Hong Kong and boasts over 100 “highly-qualified, long-serving professionals” and offers a number of fund and accounting services.
It was announced in February that regulators had rejected CIBC's $797 million acquisition deal with Financial Group Limited. In September 2020 they closed one of their branches on the island.
This is not the first time CIBC has made local redundancies of some long-serving employees. In 2019 a smaller number were made redundant including the head of operations who had been with the bank for some 35 years.
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