Bank staff plan campaign against wilful defaulters from April 20

The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) plans to unleash a national campaign to demand recovery of bad loans and action against wilful defaulters. The campaign will begin from April 20 and culminate in a massive morcha before Parliament by 50,000 bank employees in mid-September, CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA, said at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday.

Venkatachalam urged the RBI to allow banks to publish the list of loan defaulters and argued that laws pertaining to secrecy should not be used to shield wilful defaulters.

While registering the opposition of unions to the merger of five associate banks of SBI with SBI, Venkatachalam said that there was no need for a big bank, it was important to have a good bank. Arguing that a number of branches are going to be closed as a result of the merger, and a VRS also was to be offered to employees, Venkatachalam said that customer service will be affected.

This is a time for expansion of services rather than consolidation, he felt. Opposing the decision of the SBI to impose service charges and penal charges for various types of normal banking services, he said it was passing on the burden of non-performing loans on to customers. The AIBEA will observe April 12 as ‘All India Demand’ day, demanding withdrawal of these charges, he said.

He also clarified that there was no reduction in employee benefits contemplated as part of a turnaround plan that the government was discussing with unions for troubled public sector banks.

It was earlier reported in a section of the media that the government was agreeable to infusing fresh capital if there were some new curbs on employee benefits in those banks.

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