Ex-Indebank employees accuse NBM of delaying their dues, struggle to survive

Nine of the former employees of the defunct Indebank are reportedly struggling to make ends meet as National Bank of Malawi (NBM), which bought Indebank, continues to withhold their payment.

NBM bought Indebank and its group companies in 2016, a development that led to the dismissal of 109 employees at the time of the takeover.

The dismissed workers, who were in two sets of Indebank Limited and Indetrust Limited, dragged NBM to the Industrial Relations Court (IRC), demanding damages for unfair dismissal. They won the cases, which came in as IRC matter No. 67 of 2016 while the nine had their case certified as IRC matter No. 626 of 2022.

Both sets of the employees won their cases and the bank paid the 99 after court assessment while the nine are yet to receive their dues.

One of the ex-employees complained in an interview last week that his family is surviving on a shoestring budget because of the failure by NBM to settle their dues.

“We are struggling. Life is never the same. I wish the bank could do something as soon as yesterday,” he said. “We wonder why NBM is not paying us when they lost the case and the basis of calculation is well known to the bank?”

NBM Chief Executive Officer McFussy Kawawa did not pick our phone when we sought his reaction on Wednesday.

Kawawa is also yet to respond to our questionnaire, which he acknowledged receipt through WhatsApp text.

In the spirit of fairness and objectivity, we wish to assure our readers that whatever the NBM boss says will also be given priority in our coverage.