ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ CONFEDERATION 
(Registered under the Trade Unions Act
1926, Registration No.:3427/Delhi)
(Registered under the Trade Unions Act
1926, Registration No.:3427/Delhi)
C/o Bank of India, Parliament Street
Branch
PTI Building, 4, Parliament Street, New
Delhi: 110001
Phone:011-23730096
Tel/Fax 23719431
E-Mail:
aiboc.sectt@gmail.com
Circular No.
2015/04 Dated: 15/01/2015
Dear Comrade,
MEETING OF THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SALARY REVISION
As
you are aware, as a parallel to monetary benefits and as a part of charter of
demands, Officers’ Organisations have been consistently demanding for
1.
Comprehensive Accountability policy.
2.
Five days banking.
3.
Regulated working hours.
As
all the three agenda are pertinent and relevant to officers alone, we have been
insisting the IBA to bring some common guideline to the sector as these are
being handled at the whims and fancy of each bank and the absence of such
common guidelines is hurting the officers very badly, more specifically in the
cases related to disciplinary matters.
Thus,
in the last meeting with IBA held on 7th January 2015, while it was decided to
discuss further on the wage costs beyond 12.50%, it was also decided to arrive at
a consensus on these three issues too through a subcommittee formed exclusively
for the said purpose.
As
you will agree that these three issues are very much dear to officers because
of being the factors affecting the working condition and life style of officers’
community besides wage increase, the officers' organisations have decided to
approach the IBA with an elaborately prepared Perception paper on all the three
issues.
Accordingly,
the subcommittee met on 14th January at 2.00 p.m. at IBA office, Mumbai.
Comprehensive
Accountability Policy.
In the current
scenario, the Banks - a highly sensitive sector - are essential for economic
progress and sustenance but carrying out the business has become highly risky
and there would be a reflection of
serious ramifications in case of
little deviation/ failure.
Nevertheless, it is
the basic duty of the officers in the banking sector to carry on with the
business continuously despite the presence of so many demotivating factors
encountered in making credit decisions in order to keep the Industry vibrating.
Among various risks
involved in carrying out the day to day functions of the Bank, the credit risk
is considered the major risk which impacts the performance of the Bank in a big
way.
As we all are aware
that, though the Credit dispensation function is inherently risky, we, the bank
officers are expected to effectively discharge our responsibilities without
having any insulation or protective gear.
In this regard, the
M.S. Verma committee, during 1999, has given a call for reintroduction of
credit culture as the fear of staff accountability has "killed"
initiative for fresh business. In the same tone the Kapoor committee on
assessing credit, observed as follows-
"While fixing accountability,
a line should be drawn to separate malafide decisions from normal bonafide
credit decisions in order to keep the morale of the employees high". It
further says "to instil confidence in the staff and encourage them to make
decisions including some bonfide mistakes there is a need to evolve a system in
Public Sector Banks in assessing the performance of each Officer in taking
credit decisions." Even Khandelwal committee also advises the Public Sector
Banks to put in a place a staff accountability policy.
Everybody will
accept that while mistakes may happen, an atmosphere of fear of being subjected
to investigation at some later date and the associated stigma is not conducive
for efficient and informed decision making.
Under today's
dynamic situation that drives every nerve in expanding banking business, with
the young and comparatively lesser experienced supervisory workforce in the
operations side, it is very much required to devise a comprehensive policy with
an objective to erase the fear of accountability from the minds of Officers.
Such policies must
have following few ingredients -
1.
The
essence of the policy should be able to motivate the credit decision making
capability of the Officers.
2.
The
tools of the policy should be able to differentiate the malafide intentions
from the bonafide decisions.
3.
It
should be able to differentiate the various roles in credit decision making
process and accountability may be fixed accordingly.
4.
The
process of investigation should be handled by the persons from the operational
area.
5.
The
job of fixing accountability should not be vested with one individual but it
may be handled by a committee consisting of experienced persons involved in
such decision making process.
6.
There
should be a specific time frame within which the accountability, if at all, should
be fixed on any individual.
7.
The
punishments should be proportionate and should be codified.
8.
There
should be specific guidelines in deciding the vigilance angle.
9.
There
cannot be multiple punishments and the punishments should not deter anybody in
pursuing career elevations.
10.
Disciplinary
issues if any should be concluded well before the retirement date and there should
not be any post retirement harassment for the officers.
11.
There
should be a specific time frame for disposing the appeal and review petitions.
Many operation level
issues were brought for discussion and there was a mutual understanding to
pursue the issue further keeping the essence of above calendared items as a
guideline.
REGULATED WORKING
HOURS
The entire
discussion was on the essence of following few points
1.
It has been the
demand of officers from 1966.
2.
VRS and subsequent
restriction on fresh recruitment till 2009 added huge pressure on officers in
view of the disproportionate but positive growth witnessed by the industry
vertically in business and horizontally in staff strength.
3.
Restriction on
recruitment increased the average age of the officers in the branch, certainly
having impact on the reflex.
4.
Introduction and
increase of ATMs, e-lounges, POS, Business Correspondents and Internet banking
failed to reduce the responsibility of the supervisors and indeed added the
workload as they have to monitor these alternate channels too.
5.
Various verticals
introduced in the sector has absorbed the little relief available due to
computerisation to the supervisory strength.
6.
With the
introduction of improvised system like Cheque truncation, RBI introduced
reduction in holidays and enhanced burden to the officers.
7.
Additional
responsibilities due to schemes like ‘JAN DHAN YOJANA’ and tax collection added
additional work load to officers.
8.
Thousands of
branches are manned by single officer bearing all the amount of pressure.
9.
Officers’ presence
in the branches from 9 to 9 is a common sight.
10.
Many incidences of
robbery and attack by insurgents during the extended hours.
11.
An international
labour convention, to which India is a signatory, also requires the
introduction of regulated working hours.
12.
In USA, it is 33 hours,
in Australia it is 35 hours, it is 30 hrs in France and Netherlands stipulates
27 hours working in 5 days.
13.
Working after 6 pm
is banned in France and in some countries people work beyond 8 hours are
ineligible to get insurance cover.
14.
Unregulated working
hours results in fatigue and the resultant is reduction in efficiency leading
to low productivity.
15.
A study by the
American journal of Epidemiology observed the poor performance in the people
working 55 hours a week when compared to those working 40 hours a week.
16.
All the Govt.
offices and offices of private sector are under regulated working hours.
17.
RBI has introduced
the regulated working hours on 12th July 2012 along with flexible timing vide
their circular no. G.28/240/04.01.14/2012-2013.
18.
IDBI introduced the
regulated working hours in 2009.
19.
With 75 percentage
of the workforce below 33 years in a few years, the introduction of regulated
working hours will certainly enthuse them and will increase the efficiency
& productivity.
After hearing our
presentation, there was a welcome reaction from the IBA side and they
acknowledged the fact that the officers are sitting late and agreed to examine
the issue to bring a possible solution.
FIVE DAYS WEEK
The discussion was
based on the following arguments and facts put forth by us in support of
demand:
1.
Central Govt.
Employees work for five days.
2.
Majority of State Govt.
employees work for five days.
3.
RBI works for five
days.
4.
IT sector works for
five days with sole aim to retain and recoup the energy despite their nature of
work having the scope to work continuously.
5.
No financial institution,
internationally, work on Saturdays.
6.
Currently about 50%
of the workforce are recruited after 2009 and the remaining too either will be
recruited now onwards or will be promoted from out of the beyond 2009 recruits.
To keep the youths in resonance with international standards so as to retain
them in the Industry, five days a week is required.
7.
As per RBI report
62% of the transactions are done through alternate channels and the percentage
is on increase.
8.
No. of ATMs as on
Oct. 2014 is 173697.
9.
About 2.5lac
business correspondents are discharging the banking related jobs outside the
bank premises.
10.
About 11,11,576 POS
(point of sales) terminals are available all through the days.
11.
About 1,99,54,598
credit cards and 44,16,11,701 debit cards are in active operation as on Oct.
2014 as all 11 crores accounts opened under JAN DHAN YOJANA are issued with
debit cards.
12.
There are 3.50
crores mobile banking users and 9.40 crores transactions during financial year
ended March, 2014.
13.
All banks are in the
process of opening self service kiosks wherein the facilities for pass book
printing, coin vending, cash withdrawal and deposit through the machines are
available.
14.
The cheque
truncation system is working efficiently and funds clearance is possible on
line instead of waiting for 14 days.
15.
Recently the MOS Sri
Jitendra Prasad in Parliament and Sri Ajith Seth, Cabinet Secretary informed
that the Govt. does not have any intention to propose any change in the
existing 5days a week.
16.
It will have very
effective impact in the govt. proposal of cutting expenditure to 10% from the
current level
17.
In a recent
interview to Business today, while recording the reasons for the success of
HDFC bank, the Chairman admitted that today 85% of the transactions by
customers takes place through non branch channels. The mobile and Internet
banking channel contributes almost 55%.
18.
He further stated
that HDFC bank already created 75% of the work involved in digital banking
which would be implemented shortly, whereby everything you do physically will
be done virtually.
19.
Other obvious
benefits are,
1.
Reduced fuel costs,
2.
Increased productivity,
3.
Improved job satisfaction morale,
4.
Saving the scarce National power and energy resources,
5.
Improved work life balance,
6.
Reduced traffic congestion and pollution.
Almost all countries/economies adopt 5 days a week
including U K, USA, Russia, Japan, Chile, China, Columbia, Europe, France,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain. Sweden, Mexico, Mongolia, Newzeland
etc. After
thorough deliberations, there was a positive signal of acknowledging the
seriousness of the issue and it was decided to pursue the issue further.
OTHER ISSUES.
Though the above
said three items were listed for discussion we also brought following issues
for discussions which are concerning the working class and Bank employees in
general and officers in particular in view of the challenges in front of the
Banking Industry:
1. As Honourable Prime Minister told in the ‘Gyan
Sangam’, Indian Public Sector Banks are holding beyond 70% of the banking
business and to sustain the pace and business is our biggest challenge in the
current scenario and sufficient manpower and infrastructure must be provided in
the Banking Industry.
2. To meet the challenges like slump in economy
resulting in lesser credit growth, increasing trend in NPAs, reduction in NIM,
unprecedented technological advancement in the Industry, a big shift in
customers' need, challenges to be posed by possible increase in the presence of
Foreign Banks & New Private Banks and even the Payment Banks, a motivated,
well groomed, intellectually strong tech savvy youths are required.
3. As per the Industry estimate the virtual banking is
not only the mode of future banking but it would be the better method to reduce
the cost. It is expected that about 85% of the banking transactions will be
taking place through non branch channels and mobile & Internet banking
shall be crossing more than 50% of the banking transactions.
4. Digital Banking will be the key to success and
almost 85% of the banking transactions are going to be through Digital banking.
5. When all the alternative channels of banking are
fully geared up and the Digital banking will be the order of the day, the
Industry would tend to become totally Officer centred. Even Khandelwal
Committee recommended for 50% direct recruit officers, perhaps may be based on
the above said expectation. On getting the embargo on recruitment lifted in
2009, the Banks started recruiting the officers in a big way from then on.
Currently about 50% of the Officers in the Industry
are in the age group of below 30 years. Out of the remaining 50% about 30% of
the Officers will be replaced by the Officers recruited after 2009 or by the
Officers to be promoted from out of the employees recruited after 2009.
However, in another 5 years about 75% of the Bank
Officers would be in the age band up to 35 years and they will be holding the
positions of Scale I, II & III having a major role in the operation side of
the Banking.
Thus it is expected that many youngsters, perhaps
without much exposure in the branch banking, may be heading the branches. This
mass presence of educated youth may over a period result in stagnation at the
top which may lead to frustration. It is also a fact that more than 1/3rd
of the young Officers are girls.
6. Unlike in the past, all the Officers and even the
employees recruited after 2009 are professional/technical/Post Graduates with
huge amount of aspirations.
Thus the sector is at the compulsion of revisiting all
its policies related to promotion and monetary benefits in order to keep the
most talented Indian youth to be drawn towards the Banking Industry and retain
them too.
A few suggestions in this regard which were given to
IBA are as under:
1.
Creation of crèche facilities to facilitate the women employees in all big cities and
towns.
2.
Bringing Comprehensive Accountability policy to instil confidence in decision making
3.
Stipulation of 3 years rural or semi urban service, to
be completed before becoming scale IV.
4.
Automatic elevation to next scale up to scale III on completion of specified years of active service in the respective
scales.
5.
Preference in admission for Bank officers' wards in the Central Schools/KV schools.
6.
Construction of hospitals by IBA all over the country in the lines of ESI and Railway by earmarking certain portion of the gross/net income of the
Banking sector.
There was a positive reception for the above listed
suggestions too.
Comrades, you must have perceived from the above that
there is a constant and consistent effort on our part in pursuing every issue
concerning the officers with an ultimate objective to improve the working
condition and atmosphere besides increasing the wages which is very much
important to officers who are always working under continuous pressure.
Unity is the Mantra
and if it is chanted and practiced by everybody in unison, its reverberations
will be filling the atmosphere and its resonance will wake up any giant.
We are nearing the victory post and concentration
& compilation of every nerve will bring the success nearer to us despite
lot of constraints, hurdles and resistance.
Believe in you, Believe in your Organisation, lead
every agitation programme !
Let us make the four day strike programme also a GRAND SUCCESS.
MARCH ON ! MARCH ON !!
Comradely
yours,
(HARVINDER SINGH)
GENERAL
SECRETARY
No comments:
Post a Comment