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Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram , July 16

THE All-India State Bank of India Staff Federation (AISBISF) has given a call for observing a 20-day "direct action" campaign beginning July 21 and culminating in a full-day strike on August 9 in protest against what it calls "deteriorating industrial relations" in the bank.

In a statement circulated to members, Mr Profullo Kumar Patnaik, Secretary, AISBISF, alleged that the bank management had continued to adopt arbitrariness in dealing with matters relating to staff.

Recruitment on compassionate grounds, for instance, seems to have been done away with. The number of rejected and unattended cases had crossed the number of cases approved by a big margin, Mr Patnaik said.

The employees were also apprehensive of the aggressive outsourcing policy being adopted by the bank, which had been extended to cover even miscellaneous activities in recent times. Arbitrary instructions had been issued to various Circles to outsource jobs such as sweeping, guarding and routine maintenance without taking the employees union into confidence.

Persistent requests to convert the part-time employee cadre to full-time had not been met with. Instead, the bank had chosen to put an embargo on upward revision of salaries.

Vacancies arising in the subordinate and clerical cadre due to various reasons had remained unfilled causing increased workload on existing staff. Protestation in this regard had largely been ignored and there were reasons to believe that a conspiracy to even abolish the subordinate cadre was being hatched.

The employees union also took objection to the "single window policy" announced by the bank in which erstwhile teller counters were converted by merely installing faulty and time-consuming software.

This had not only affected the image of the bank and repelled some of the customers, but had also created a sense of insecurity among the workforce, Mr Patnaik said.

More Stories on : Trade & Labour Unions | Public Sector Banks | Kerala

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