Employees of the State Bank of India and other public sector banks all over the country, including senior officers, have been agitating for the past two years, demanding an increase in salaries and opposing merger and consolidation of their banks. Public sector bank employees have had a long history of fighting resolutely for their rights. Their strike actions -- the latest major action was in August this year -- have been marked by a great degree of unity and participation, bringing banking operations to a standstill all over the country.

A correspondent of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar spoke to a senior bank officer of a major public sector bank, who has been active in the struggle, to find out what are the issues agitating the bank employees. We reproduce below excerpts of the interview.  

MEL: What are the main issues on which the public sector bank employees are agitating?

BO: We are opposed to the government’s plans for merger and consolidation of banks. We are demanding a raise in our salaries, which were to be revised in 2007, but the government’s offer of 15% raise is unacceptable to us and we have demanded at least 30% raise. We are also opposed to the World Bank’s proposal for capitalization of public sector banks.

MEL: What would be the consequences for the bank employees and for the public, if the government’s plans for merger and consolidation of banks are implemented?

BO: Merger and consolidation of public sector banks would harm the expansion of public sector banking activities in the country and nullify the financial inclusion concept of the government itself. On the one hand, the Reserve Bank of India calls for expansion of banking services and inclusiveness in banking operations. On the other hand, the government is proposing to merge smaller public sector banks into the larger ones. There appears to be a contradiction in this.

For example, last year the All India State Bank Officers Federation organized a demonstration to protest against the government's decision of merging State Bank of Saurashtra with State Bank of India. The managers and employees of the smaller banks are apprehensive of the terms and conditions of the new management that they will have to face after such a merger, as well as the discriminatory treatment they expect to receive as employees. They also fear that many may be declared ‘surplus’ and retrenched.

For the people, especially those in smaller towns, districts, rural and remote areas, as well as in lesser developed states such as some of the northeastern states, this will mean a big loss in banking services, because in these places smaller local public sector banks are the main banking service providers. Similar will be the impact of merging smaller branches of a public sector bank (which are spread out over vast remote areas, rural and mountainous areas), into a bigger branch.

MEL: What is the World Bank’s proposal and why are you opposed to it?

BO: The World Bank is offering to provide the money for the capitalisation of banks, but for this they have raised the capital-adequacy ratio from 9% to 12 %. Some smaller public sector banks may not be able to fulfil this condition. Moreover, we fear that this will give the World Bank a handle to dictate terms and conditions, which may go against our existing policies. However, the government has not taken any stand on this yet.

MEL: Whenever any section fights for increasing salaries, the media does a lot of propaganda about how they are very ‘highly paid compared to some others’, how they are lazy and inefficient, how they are selfish and ‘holding the society to ransom’. We have seen this kind of propaganda in the case of struggles of teachers, doctors, public sector employees, and even when public sector bank employees have gone on strike. How would you respond to this? 

BO: This kind of propaganda is completely false and malicious. Public sector bank employees are essentially demanding an improvement in their conditions of work, given the important and highly sensitive nature of their duties. In a sense, we are the guardians of public money. We are required to routinely procure business for the bank and take care of all monetary advances given by the bank. This is much more of a high-pressure job than people usually realize. Each branch of each bank has targets assigned to it, of how much business has to be procured. If we fall short of the target, we are penalized. If any loan goes bad, it becomes a personal liability for us; we may be demoted or our gratuity / pension denied. If there is any financial irregularity in any of our transactions, we are penalized.

All we want is recognition of our work in the form of incentives, timely promotion and rise in salaries. We have time and again brought to the notice of the government that demotivation of bank employees is often a factor behind cases of fraud in banks. Bank employees’ salaries are supposed to be reviewed once every 5 years, the last one having been in 2002-03.  Our salaries have not been revised for nearly 7 years now! Though our attempts to remind the government of its commitment through our strike actions have yielded no result yet, we continue to work and serve the public because we realize our responsibility to the society. Our present salaries are nothing more than a pittance, as compared to the salaries of employees in the private transnational banks; yet we are expected to deliver at the same level. This, at a time when we all are facing a huge jump in prices of all essential commodities and services. Of course, this will never find mention in the propaganda of the government and the media! 

MEL: Thank you very much for this very interesting conversation. You have given us a lot of insight into the difficulties of the public sector bank employees. MEL will certainly make every effort to highlight your actual conditions and demands. We wish you success in your struggle.