Bank employees strike work all over country against privatisation

India’s banking and financial sector workers are one of the most organised sections of the working class, who have been waging a consistent struggle over the years against the privatisation and liberalisation policies of the government in the financial sector. The bourgeoisie is trying to take back the hard won rights of the bank employees, retrenching employees and cutting back on new recruitments, in the name of increasing profitability, global competitiveness.

Bank employees in most of the public sector banks all over the country went on a strike on July 28, to protest against moves to privatise banks and to allow banks to outsource banking services to private agencies. Correspondents of Peoples Voice spoke to leaders of the agitation on the struggle. Below we reproduce excerpts from an interview with an officer of a public sector bank, who has been actively participating in the agitation.

PV: What are the bank employees protesting against? What are your main demands?

BO: The RBI has unilaterally issued a circular permitting banks to outsource all the normal banking services to private agencies on commission and contract basis. This has been done on orders of the Central government.We are opposing this. We are also against outsourcing of clearing functions of Reserve Bank, forced merger and acquisition of banks in the name of consolidation and proposed hike in voting rights for foreign investors. We are demanding recruitment of new staff. We are also demanding that one more pension option should be given to employees to switch from provident fund to another pension scheme.

PV: How does the RBI justify this move of outsourcing banking operations to private agencies?

BO: The RBI claims that banks are unable to handle the increased volume of work and need extra manpower. RBI plans to launch the ‘cheque truncation system’ – an online service for clearing checking operations. They plan to shift much of the existing trained manpower to this service and outsource other services, instead of recruiting new staff.

PV: Why are you opposed to the outsourcing of banking operations to private parties?

BO: We are opposing this because we feel that this will affect the jobs of the bank employees and endanger the secrecy and security of the customers’ transactions.

PV: How will this move of the RBI affect the jobs of the bank employees?

BO: With the outsourcing of banking operations, many branches of banks would be forced to close down or reduce their manpower. There would be pressure on bank employees to accept transfers to branches in remote areas or take VRS. There are nearly one lakh vacancies in various public sector banks at this time, which remain unfilled. The RBI move would amount to a deliberate ban on fresh recruitment and filling of the existing vacancies, which we feel is totally unjustified, given the huge unemployment in the country.

PV: Could you explain how the customers’ interests would be affected?

BO: All regular employees of banks are bound by a ‘fidelity bond’. According to this, they are required to maintain secrecy regarding a customer’s accounts and transactions. If the RBI move to outsource banking services becomes effective, then cheques, etc. will be handled by ‘outsiders’, not regular bank employees. Details about a customer’s accounts, transactions, signatures, etc. will then fall in the hands of people who are not bound by any such condition and who cannot be held to account by the bank, as they would be employed by the private agencies.

PV: Which are the main unions that are participating in this agitation?

BO: The strike call for July 28 was given by AIBEA (All India Bank Employees Association), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) and All India Bank Officer’s Association (AIBOA). However, other unions are also expected to join in our subsequent protest actions. State Bank of India employees did not participate in the strike of July 28 as they had recently been on a prolonged strike, but they also united on these demands.

PV: How has the government responded to your strike and your demands? What are your further plans?

BO: The Finance Ministry has called for a meeting with representatives of all the striking bank employees’ unions, later this month. We shall raise our objections at that meeting and try to reach a negotiated settlement that will be acceptable to us. If we do not succeed in this, we shall continue and intensify our agitation. The next step will be to issue a nation-wide strike call and get all the bank employees’ unions to participate in it. Maybe, if banking services all over the country are crippled, the government will be forced to listen to us.