Monday, May 5, 2014

Fixed Working Hours For Bank Staff

This refers to news item published in the newspaper The Hindu informing that union leaders of bank officers have demanded fixed working hours for bank employees. \
(Bank employees demand fixed working hours
-The Hindu-05.05.2014   see below )
Working hours are already fixed as per existing laws of the states and the country as a whole for all employees including officers of bank. Not only daily working hours, but even weekly working hours are fixed for all workers in organized sector and Labour Department has been established as per State rule in all districts to ensure it compliance in true spirit. Ministry of Labour Welfare is also in function under central and state rules. 

And it is a fact that before 1991, Department of Labour used to take care of enforcement of laws related to working hours in all shops, establishments including all offices and departments coming under public sector or private sector. But unfortunately during the course of time and in the name reformation and in the name of  liberalization, privatization and globalization , Government of India changed the mindset of all Labour officials in the country at lease since the reformation era which started from 1991 and protectors have now become exploiters and looters.

Not only this, even Union leaders of various banks used to protect the interest of bank employees and exploitation of bank staff was not possible in banking industry upto the year 1991. In the name of reformation, Union leaders too have become supporter and perpetrators of exploitation of bank staff in the same line as Management of Bank desire to exploit. 

Flattery and bribery has become the key function of majority of union leaders. And now bank staffs do not dare even reporting to their union leaders when they are forced to sit late or work on Holidays and Sundays by their local bosses. This exploitation has been on gradual rise since 1991 and now has become the culture, well established and well accepted culture in almost all offices and departments.

None of staff has courage to protest it and none of union leaders will dare talk on this issue of late sitting or culture of working on Holidays. There may be some exceptions , but by and large majority of Union leaders turn blind eye when any staff talk of late sitting .Rather Union leaders now advocate to remain in tune with local bosses to avoid critical and frequent transfers and to avoid rejection in promotion processes.

And now even powers of promotions and transfers are used to please only flatterers and to those who sit late irrespective of the fact that late sitters are usually not good performers.

Management of all banks have framed Merit Promotion policies and transfer policies incorporating such clauses which empowers them to act as per their whims and fancies in the matter related to promotions and transfers. Promotion process or chain of transfers officers takes place in consultation with local or state level union leaders and with Regional or Zonal Heads. Promotion process is a Dramatic act to show the government only that banks are having good policies in their almirahs and functioning under transparent transfer and promotion policies. Only the tool of Interview is enough for top officials of any bank to select or reject and officer in promotion processes.

In fact it is the arbitrary rule of the management and that of Union Leaders which has resulted in bad culture and none of good workers take keen interest in the safety and security of bank and bank's assets. This is why , banks are suffering from the various types of diseases like bad assets, capital erosion , low return on capital , High NPA ratio and less profit etc.,though they claim to have merit oriented policies for recruitment and promotion. There is no doubt in it that banks under public sector was well placed and healthier when there was seniority based promotion policy in most of these banks. 

After 1991, Government of India gave unbridled powers and full liberty to all banks to decide their recruitment, promotion and transfer policy and to decide their interest rate structure. But this liberty has been used by clever officials to serve their self interest in most of the cases and this is why banks are now sick and facing the risk of failure if government fails to provide adequate support to them . Unfortunately officials of RBI and GOI are silent spectators of all these mishappenings going on in the banking industry (public sector) in the name of reformation. . Private sector banks are growing quarter after quarter but PS banks are blaming interest rate or global recession or natural calamities to hide their misdeeds.

Whenever the misdeeds of top officials of banks are exposed, several senior officials and Ministers come forward to protect them. Even officials of Vigilance departments are of same mindset as other top officials are. And this is why corrupt officials are never punished. Rather they are promoted earlier than really good performers. 

If the same evil culture is allowed to perpetrate and to remain as the law of the land, there will be none who may save bank from bad bankers. When majority of top officials and ministers or RBI officials are made of same components and nourished in same polluted environment , none of honest performers will ever dare to move against the current and none will ever protest flatterers who promote not real performance but flattery and bribery only. 

As such it is ridiculous now to demand for fixed working hours when there are already legal provisions in support of it in all states.

I am unable to understand why Bank unions have all of a sudden considered it fit to raise the issue of working hours fixation at this stage keeping aside the demands of wage hike which is more important and more crucial issue of the hour. Bank unions which appeared to be serious on their demand of five days week are now willingly or unwillingly trying to dilute their focus on vital issues of wage hike or five days week by raising a issue which already have legal support and which needs only a step towards its compliance in true spirit.

If union leaders become vigilant and militant at all its units with support of all local banks branches, there is no doubt that issue of fixed hours can be resolved easily.


 Bank employees demand fixed working hours
-The Hindu-05.05.2014                                                           
With progress of technology there is no need to work six days a week, says confederation

The West Bengal unit of the All India Bank Officer’s Confederation (AIBOC) has raised a slew of demands, including fixed working hours for officers and five-day work for bank employees a week.

Pointing out that managements of various State-owned banks have claimed there are no prescribed working hours for officers, Sanjay Das, secretary of the AIBOC, said, “These prescriptions were based on the Central Civil Service Rules adapted from the imperial regime.” He described the banking sector a “service industry” and claimed that the bank employees irrespective of their cadre are eligible to fixed working hours and compensation for working beyond that time limit.

The confederation argued that with the progress of banking technology there is no need for bank employees to work six days a week as banking facilities like ATMs are now not just cash-vending machines but can be used to transfer cash and to book tickets. “A majority of customers in the metropolis, urban, and semi-urban areas have migrated to these for their normal banking needs.”

The AIBOC demanded a “compassionate appointment scheme” by pointing out that in case of the demise of an officer his or her nearest kin is not appointed on compassionate grounds.

It also demanded that the pension of bank employees be revised on a regular basis unlike the present system where it becomes static since the day of his or her retirement from service.

He alleged that there was a “dichotomy” on the question of “affordability” in terms of salary hike of bank employees raised by the IBA. Claiming that PSU banks in India posted a profit of more than Rs. 12 lakh crore, he alleged, “PSBs have written off Rs. 95,717 crore in the last six years …Thus huge sums are being doled out to fraudsters and corporates.”

As for the new licensing policy, he said it “threatens us to take back to the days before nationalisation in 1969 when all the big banks at the time were owned by corporate houses which mobilised deposits from the public for promoting the interests of their respective groups.”

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