Ukreximbank won't pay salary to its board chairman during his suspension
KYIV. Oct 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The state-run Ukreximbank (Kyiv) will not pay chairman the bank's board Yevhen Metzger wages during his suspension in connection with the attack on the journalists of the Schemes TV program during the recording of an interview in the building of the financial institution, head of the supervisory board of Ukreximbank Oliana Hordiyenko has said.
"The Supervisory Board dismissed chairman of the board Metzger without receiving wages and his presence at the workplace," she said at a press briefing at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Thursday.
According to her, in the event of the dismissal of the head of the board, the bank should have paid him on the last day of work in cash assistance in the amount of at least six months' average earnings.
It is indicated that the supervisory board has created a bank ethics commission and is evaluating the actions of the head of the financial institution regarding their compliance with the standards that are written in the bank's code of ethics and the corporate governance code.
As Radio Liberty earlier reported, on Monday, October 4, the camera crew of the Skhemy TV program was attacked during an interview with Metzger, allegedly because of one of the questions they did not like. According to the head of Skhemy Natalia Sedletska, the bank employees took away two cameras, took away the cards on which the recording was carried out, and deleted the recorded video. According to journalists, all this time the camera crew remained locked in the office of the head of the bank's board in his presence. An hour later, the equipment was returned to the camera crew, but the video of the entire interview and the attack itself was removed.
Ukreximbank rejected the accusations of violating the law and, in turn, accused them of provocation and an attempt to seize banking secrets. According to the financial institution, the actions of the journalists contained signs of both illegal seizure of bank secrets and violation of the Code of Ethics of a Ukrainian journalist in terms of using illegal methods of obtaining information.
On October 6, the Supervisory Board of Ukreximbank dismissed the bank's board chairman Metzger for the period of investigation into the incident and appointed Serhiy Yermakov, a member of the board, as acting head of the board.