The Hindu Business Line : SBI staff union assails Chairman's remarks

The State Banks' Staff Union (Kerala Circle) has come down heavily on the Chairman, Mr O.P. Bhatt, for holding the aged workers and strong union responsible for losing the bank's market share.

In a statement here, the General Secretary of the Union, Mr John Joseph, said it is dismaying that the management has unleashed a campaign against its own employees.

This has been done by making derogatory remarks before the media persons or through calculated leaks of deliberations at high-level meetings where the onus of losing market share has been dumped on the shoulders of the frontline workforce, says the statement.

But the employees "are trying to do their best with their dwindling strength and not-so-user-friendly technology and infrastructure. We are confident that the frontline workforce of State Bank of India can take on their counterparts of any commercial bank, including new generation private banks and foreign banks."

The statement says that the gap in efficiency widens to the disadvantage of SBI at the upper tiers. The reasons for losing the market share are: a lack of vision, lack of promptness in making policy changes in accordance with the market movement and inept handling of human resources.

"We strongly oppose the perception that the State Bank is losing share as the average age profile of the employee is skewed at more than 50 years. We feel these vast numbers of experienced staff are the real asset of the bank and not a burden," says the statement.

Agreement

Regarding the Chairman's perception that a strong union is an obstacle to doing better business, the statement says that it has no basis at all. On the contrary, the All India State Bank of India Staff Federation was the first to sign an agreement on computerisation in the banking industry and movement of employees.

In fact, more than 60 per cent of the workforce in SBI have changed their workplaces during the last six years, which is the largest movement of employees in the banking industry, notes the statement.