National Union Of Bank Employees’
Dear friends of bankers
At the outset we acknowledge, appreciate your certitude and tenacity and endorse the article in your sites ‘war against humiliation has to be launched by trade unions’and other interrelated articles spearheading the cause of bank employees in tune with your healthy missions . Our organisation NUBE expresses its solidarity the fight undertaken by you and the employees/officers of PNB to bring the issue to the logical end .
Recent suicide by a Punjab National Bank’s officer Ajay Sehgal, Chief Manager, aged 51 has exposed pre medieval , insolent ,bullying machinations of some top honchos in the banking and inhuman treatment meted to their subordinates . our heart goes to the family of the deceased in this distraught hour .
The role of work is changed throughout the world due to economic conditions and social demands. Originally, work was a matter of necessity and survival. Throughout the years, the role of "work" has evolved and the composition of the workforce has changed. Today, work is still a necessity and personal satisfaction as well. Work-life balance is a broad concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) on one hand and "life" (pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development) on the other.
The issue of ‘Work-Life Balance’ within banking services has drawn considerable attention over the past few years. The movement towards the better service has increased the development of the banking industry. Employees of the banks are providing lots of services in order to remain competitive in a rapidly changing market. On the other hand many hardworking employees, officers who work beyond working hours to meet the demand of ‘day end ‘ due to frequent link failure or reach targets set by the top echelons whether it is CASA,, recovery of NPA or financial inclusion go unrewarded . .
However, with increased working hours, stress and responsibilities many bankers are unable to balance their personal and professional lives.. Immense job hour stress with emotional problems which escalates into full-blown crisis has now become synonymous with the Indian Banking Industry, where subordinates are forced to deliver under stress which results in advanced psychological conditions which linger around them say experts. In recent time the public sector banks have started aping their private counterpart by believing that divulging loan will bring in more profit. But the functioning of a public sector bank is quite different from the private ones and there are many checks and balances in place to keep losses at bay. NUBE had in memorandum to the government
had written about the global trend of working week and working hours justifying demand 5 day week. In India employees in public sector banks work even beyond 50 hours in week to meet the ambitious , ungainly, unscientific business plan targets set by their respective banks from time to time . The reasons as to why people work longer than the hours stipulated are varied and complex and we are not getting into that here. But if one has to sum up it would be because employers exploit workers ,.in the past workmen themselves did over-time to supplement their income as per the settlement as they do not always get a decent wage by working their normal hours. But now payment of overtime is reduced to comatose . At higher levels, many see working extra hours as a way to get ahead in the organisation.
We live in an increasingly complex world where work weeks seem to be getting longer, not shorter. The need to “work smarter, not harder” has gripped us like never before. This struggle to survive and succeed leads to stress and when this job stress becomes unbearable, it may lead to suicide.
Suicide: Suicide (Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, "to kill oneself") is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.Suicide is often committed out of despair or stress related to job or any other personal reasons. Job stress is obviously the most important reason of people committing suicide in the public sector. Suicide in public sector is increasing alarmingly.
According to reports 50% employees in Indian public sector are under job stress; 30% have problems such as addictions and marital discord; 20% suffer from depression. These figures clearly depict job stress as the number one stressor in the lives of public sector employees. Public sector staff hit by stress epidemic . The government's target culture is leaving public sector staff too stressed to work, according to an independent study. There is a high proportion of particularly challenging public facing roles in the public sector such as police, healthcare, teaching, and social services which contribute to higher than average levels of absence.
In the competitive industrial scenario, one of the key components to increase the bottom line in the globalized economy is to find out how an enterprise leverages capability at a global level for procurement, sourcing and delivering all its products and services across markets far more rapidly and takes advantage by cross leveraging between various markets. Working in such conditions has become tough for the public sector employees. One person works to the point of exhaustion; another is tied to the computer, allowing little room for flexibility, self-initiative. Karōshi which can be translated literally from Japanese as "death from overwork", is occupational sudden death .
In public sector banks , HR practices and its management have a long way to go in order to achieve professional and competitive HR standards. There is lot to be done by HR in these terms. In India, the high rate of suicide among young adults can be associated with greater socioeconomic stressors that have followed the liberalization of the economy and privatization leading to the loss of job security, huge disparities in incomes and the inability to meet role obligations in the new socially changed environment. The breakdown of the joint family system that had previously provided emotional support and stability is also seen as an important causal factor in suicides in India.
The winds of change are blowing noticeably in the corridors of power. Saturday has become a full working day for the Prime Minister’s Office. So has Sunday for many senior officials. “Our five-day week has gone for a six but it’s good,” quipped a senior bureaucrat.
Off and on our media writes about how little our government works. There was this article in the Times of India about the fact that our elected representatives enjoy a 60-day working year, and this time it was about the Delhi Assembly. But the next thing we heard was that the Speaker of the House had issued a contempt notice to the newspaper for publishing the story. The newspaper has certainly not done anything wrong. This isn’t even ‘secret’ information got via the RTI (Right To Information Act) and nor is it a journalistic sting…but nevertheless the government has been stung! They hate it that these facts have been highlighted.
The rot after all starts at the top.
Indians are the one of the most hardworking people in the world.
"Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary situation". It has thrown several challenges to bank unions to effectively coordinate, unite and demand sanity, transparency in career progressions , transfers and above all firm UP up our will & our resolve, resolutely to pursue 5day week which has gone for a six under the present regime at the centre , tending towards a’ permanent solution’.
“In Germany
the Nazis First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me”.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me”.
Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)
It was PNB employee Today
Tomorrow it can be any on us .
The above quote of Martin Niemöller, sends a chilling message to all of us that if we do not fight back these evil designs of arrogance and abuse of power , it will ride over our skulls and spines like a terrific tank
S.Srinivasan
President
NUBE
National Union Of Bank Employees’
