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Investigations conducted by Peacefmonline.com into the recent tensions between the management and staff of Fidelity Bank has revealed a well calculated ploy to rid the bank of its employees without the proper procedure. Management and shareholders were upbeat after the $66 million deal with IBM for 5 years was signed a few months back but what was not envisaged during the rush acquisition of ProCredit was the unforeseen losses to be made after the procurement. In the wake of this development, workers are being made to bear the brunt of what appears to be a bad deal even though the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank had made assurances to all the employees of the bank that there will be �no layoffs� for at least a year. Peacefmonline.com investigations also revealed that Fidelity Bank is using its policy for accessing non performance, which is only determined at the end of year through the year-end appraisal system as a screen to lay off its employees. With the year-end appraisal system, grading of an employee is done through a joint assessment between himself and his/her line manager after which the employee is weighed on a scale of 1-5 (1 being poor and 5 being outstanding). The bank's policy states that a score of 1 or 2 is a poor performance and thus requires the employee to be put on a performance improvement program (PIP) during which he will receive the necessary training, guidance and mentoring to help him improve. However if this process fails to bring any improvement then the employee is advised to resign or expelled from the bank. Meanwhile, process being carried out currently does not consider the end of year appraisal rather a mid- year appraisal which Fidelity Bank has over the years refused to use in determining any form of reward or assessment of its staff when it is in the staff's favor. Clearly, this is a ploy to rid the bank of employees without the proper procedure. Also, employees are being laid off without any agreement a severance package and from all indications, the Fidelity Bank is aiming to avoid such processes laid down in the 2003 labor act by advising employees to resign.