Tag: Bank Unions

Bank unions threaten two-day nationwide strike against proposed privatisation of PSBs, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, has given a call for a two-day strike from December 16 to protest against the proposed privatisation of two state-owned lenders. In the Union Budget presented in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatisation of two public sector banks (PSBs) as part of its disinvestment plan.

The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the past four years.

The government has listed the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, for introduction and passage during the current session of Parliament.

In view of this, UFBU has decided to oppose the move for privatisation, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said in a statement.

Strike notice for December 16 and December 17, 2021, has been served by UFBU on the IBA, he said.

In a developing country like India, where banks deal with huge public savings and they have to play a leading role to ensure broad-based economic development, public sector banking with social orientation is the most appropriate and imperative need, he said.

Hence, he said, for the past 25 years, under the banner of UFBU “we have been opposing the policies of banking reforms which are aimed at weakening public sector banks”.

Members of UFBU include All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI).

Others are Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).



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Bank unions term Govt’s move to divest stake in IDBI Bank as retrograde

Banking & Finance

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Bank unions said the Cabinet approval for strategic disinvestment of the Government’s stake in IDBI Bank and transfer of management control to a strategic buyer is a retrograde step.

“The decision to disinvest in a depressing scenario would lead to underselling and passing the benefits to the private investors. It may also lead to whitewashing the bad loans from the balance sheet,” said S Nagarajan, General Secretary, All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), in a letter to the President of India, Prime Minister, RBI Governor, and Chiefs of IDBI Bank and LIC.

Staff rationalisation fears

Nagarajan feared that the profit greed of investors will lead to closure of branches/offices, restrict banking activities, lead to staff rationalisation and adverse staff service conditions, which will be counter-productive to the entire workforce.

“When the nation is reeling under health emergency, such an announcement emerging from the corridors of power is really shocking and disturbing,” he said. Nagarajan emphasised that IDBI Bank recently turned the corner after lots of effort put-in by the workforce coupled with the management’s approach to hive-off certain ancillary activities.

“The structural change brought-in by the Government through conversion of IDBI (a development financial institution/DFI) into IDBI Bank (a universal bank) in 2004 was certainly a mistaken step. …the Government’s decision to sell its stake in IDBI Bank is certainly a retrograde step… Side by side, the Government promoting an Infra Bank with huge capital is certainly intriguing,” Nagarajan said.

Appeal to the President

The Association appealed to the President, who is the Custodian of public sector undertakings and public wealth, to counsel the authorities to halt the move to disinvest the Government’s and LIC’s stake in the bank.

In addition, AIBOA sought an immediate intervention to initiate steps to recover the bad loans (at ₹36,212 crore as at March-end 2021) in a fast-track manner lest corporate defaulters acquire this great time-tested institution.

CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association, said: “IDBI played a leading role in financing industrial development in our country. Because some private corporate houses have cheated the Bank by not repaying the loans, IDBI Bank came into problem.”

IDBI Bank’s shares on Thursday ended 6.72 per cent higher at ₹40.50 apiece. During the day, the bank’s shares rose almost 15 per cent to ₹43.50.

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FinMin asks State-run banks, insurers to consider postponing promotion process

Banking & Finance

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The finance ministry has asked all public sector financial intermediaries to take cognisance of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation and take appropriate steps to ensure that the promotion process factors in the constraints likely to be faced by their officers and staff.

The ministry emphasised that the officers and staff of the public sector financial intermediaries — public sector banks (PSBs), public sector insurance companies (PSICs) and financial institutions (FIs) — may be given adequate opportunity for participating in the promotion process.

Postponement of the promotion process may also be considered, it added.

The promotion process has coincided with a spike in Covid-19 cases across the country, along with lockdown/curfew and increase in micro-containment zones.

There also cases of bank employees or their family members being hospitalised due to Covid-19 infection.

When the Covid-19 pandemic set in last year, some of the public sector financial intermediaries went online for conducting promotion interviews.

Sanjeev K Bandlish, Convenor, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), in a letter to the finance ministry, said: “In the current wave that is sweeping across the nation, we are distressed to note that already several bank employees and officers have died. It is shocking to note that some of them could not even get admitted to hospitals due to the dearth of beds.”

Govt should usher in five-day week

Bandlish sought reduced working hours, five-day banking and exemption from duty to employees with existing comorbidities, pregnant employees/officials, persons with disabilities (Divyangjan), among others.

Referring to the Centre recently declaring every Saturday as a public holiday for the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in the run up to its initial public offer, KS Krishna, General Secretary, All India SBI Employees’ Association, observed that bank employees too should get relief in the form of five-day week amid the raging pandemic.

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Bank unions threaten with aggressive protest against privatisation move, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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Bank unions across India have not yet given up and in order to support their stance against the proposed privatisation of some state-run banks, they have made threats of holding more strikes against the Union government. This comes after the general council meeting of the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) on Sunday.

“The general council meeting has called upon all our unions and members all over the country to continue the struggle against bank privatisation, get ready for prolonged strikes and intensify our campaign to defend public sector banking and defeat attempts of privatization,” the union said in a statement.

FM Niramala Sitharaman announced in the Union Budget speech on February 1 that the government will conduct privatisation of two more public sector banks besides IDBI Bank, in the financial year 2022. Following this major development, on March 15 and 16, about 10 million bank employees participating from nearly 9 bank unions conducted a two-day bank strike

Bank unions have also begun engaging with customers and the public at large, on what they believe are the ill-effects of privatization.

In a statement AIBEA added, “Public sector banks provide permanent jobs for the educated youth. But we know the plight of the employees working in the new private banks where job security is totally absent. Fair wages are denied. Trade union rights are non-existent. Thus, privatisation of banks will enslave the young employees into these adverse conditions.”

The 2-day national bank strike led to Heavy losses of about Rs 16,500 crore due to clearance of cheques and payment instruments only on the first day of the strike. Payment instruments such as cheques, demand drafts and pay orders are processed by three large centres.

While Chennai handles 5.8 million instruments worth ₹5,150 crore every day, Mumbai handles 8.6 million instruments worth ₹6,500 crore and Delhi processes 5.7 million instruments worth ₹4,850 crore.

Also Read: Privatisation…Long (not) live Public Sector Banks



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