Government Active On Merger & Silent On Wage Hike

Trade union leaders in public sector banks are perhaps sleeping or waiting rain of money by virtue of luck. They protested merger of banks in the past but are  now silently watching the developments taking place towards achievement of merger of banks. Perhaps government will get success in changing the agenda of leaders from fight for wage revision and that for 5 days week to fight against merger and attack on unity of bank employees.

Neither Government of India nor Indian Bank Association (IBA) is serious on wage hike. There is no doubt that even mother does not feed a child until he or she weeps. When leaders are silent spectators of indifference and casual approach of IBA and when they are even not able to build pressure for getting date of dialogue on wage settlement , they cannot be expected to fight for better scale and better amenities for bank employees in Xth Bipartite .

I hope these leaders should now prepare Charter of Demand for next settlement and submit the same to member employees so that members feel relaxed at least with Charter of Demand. Members will fly in dreamland created by Charter of Demand envisaging 50% or 100 % hike in wage as they have been flying for last two years waiting hike of 30% to 40% . Leaders should start  trying  for XI bipartite settlement keeping in view the loss of time in arriving at success in signing of Xth Bipartite.

Another remedy for weak and incompetent leaders in my view is that leaders should totally boycott the meeting with IBA and leave the issue fully in control of Government and IBA. Through this step, I think members will at least save monthly  subscription payable to unions as well as save contribution amount  payable to Unions out of arrears generated by delayed settlement. It will be better for bankers to amalgamate them with central government employees or even with state government employees. They should ask the government  whether bank staff are part of state government or that of central government .

Both ways , either as state government employees or central government employees bank employees will prove to be gainer in long run.These leaders should now at least stop the job of trade unionism and leave the fate of staff on the mercy of government and politicians .

In seventies and eighties bank unions used to treated as active, militant  and member friendly .At least leaders of award staff used to build pressure on government for amicable and better wage hike. And officers used to get the hike automatically. Unfortunately leaders of award staff have also aligned with that of officers union and hence they all now wish to remain in good book of local Bank head , perhaps to serve their self interest , at least not for the betterment of their colleagues for whom they are picked up as leaders. 

 Now a days when we are in era of reformation, these leaders have also become management friendly and government friendly so that their kith and kin , their friends and relatives and finally their own colleagues of their own choice are served better . Leaders are busy perhaps in saving corrupt officers who became wealthy by indulging in wrong lending for earning bribe money and costly gifts from borrowers. They perhaps  care only for top officials who are trapped in CBI or CVC inquiries. They work in nexus with top management so that their few blind followers called as flatterers are given preferred chance in promotional processes and given cream posting. Or at best , they will win the heart of top management in getting reimbursement of newspaper cost or some tea allowances.

I am unable to understand why only wage revision of bank employees is delayed by such a abnormal period and not that of SAIL. Coal India, and central government employees. This is astonishing that majority of bank employees are annoyed with leaders but they continue to have trust on leaders . Perhaps they wonder in dreamland if they think that leaders are as honest as they used to be in eighties and before. Time has changed, perception of union leaders have also changed. They (union leaders ) become Hero as soon as they are elected leaders in the same way as politicians become Heroes when they re voted to power.

Politicians are at least voted out in next election, but in banks, leaders cannot be removed because members are scared of these leaders. They are  least bothered of their future , permanent future. I think members should try to understand whether they are safe in the hands of their leaders and if no, they should now ponder over better alternatives. Otherwise  Government will accomplish their task of merger and consolidation , task of financial inclusion, task of tax collection or salary payment of government employees, task of looting banks through write off of loans , building pressure on wrong lending towards big projects etc keeping bank employees engaged in saving their service and their present wages and allowances.

God knows what will happen when two or three banks of different culture will merge so far as future of bank employees is concerned. But it is also sure that government will not gain in the long run as they are dreaming to gain and more emphatically I may say that health of banks will also not improve.

 At most , government may come out of current trouble arising due to current need of capital to comply Basel Norms . It is also certain that volume of bad debts will continue to rise and rise , cases of fraud and bad lending will go on rising and finally interest of bank employees will continue to suffer and suffer.

In the past also , RBI and Government of India have undertaken course  of merger , but only to save  a sinking bank  and that too to get rid of public annoyance and to safeguard them from exposure in public domain. When management of a bank got exposed in bad lending and lost huge volume of capital and profit, such banks used to be merged with some stronger bank so that politicians and officials of RBI as also Government could not be abused of failure in handling of banks even after enjoying full powers and even after carrying out so called audit and inspection.I do not know whether previous government reformed these public sector banks or deformed them.But the result is crystal clear to those who are unbiased.

In current year too , financial health of United Bank, Allahabad bank and Central bank exposed and very soon that of SBI , PNB and other so called stronger banks will be exposed if government do not strike at the root cause of the sickness. If they stick to merger policy, they may remain in comfort for a few quarters only. 

In no wayn merger of banks will prove beneficial in the long run . It is simply a temporary solution to come out of mess created by banks in span of two decades of so called reformation imposed by previous government. Merger presently in pipeline will further add fuel to fire and health of bank will further deteriorate because no change is likely to take place in culture of recruitment, culture of promotions, culture of lending, culture of write off, culture of political exploitation and finally in legal and administrative set up in the country which have jointly made the life of bankers miserable.

Last but not the least, bank employees are also going to suffer if merger really takes place in the way they are moving. Bank staff will slowly fight for wage hike and strive for survival and make efforts to save their dignity and status in the bank and in the society.

Government undoubtedly failed to keep big banks safe (like SBI and PNB) and also failed to keep small banks like United bank and Allahabad Bank safe. They failed in all respect and they will fail even after merger. They are going to give license for creation of small banks on the one hand and they are building pressure for merger and consolidation on the other hand. Only clever politicians can understand this magical stand of the government.

( Read Adds (advertisements ) appearing on his blog as a token of liking my views. You will at least gain new information in these adds. These adds are unique in nature. Adds will give you what you usually search in Google.

Leaders do not give what you expect from them. Adds are better than leaders. In fact people are afraid of Adds in the same way as they are afraid of their leaders,But truth is that having trust on adds is more beneficial than imposing trust on union leaders.  )

Expect turbulence with public sector bank mergers-Business Standard
The resistance from bank staff and employees' unions and local political interest could pose a formidable challenge
The government-driven exercise to consolidate public sector banks (PSBs) is likely to run into problems. Beside issues with organisation integration, there is strong opposition from employee unions.

While mergers take care of accounting, legal and regulatory requirements, the banks face challenges of wages and compensation fitment, culture and systems and info technology platform integration, said experts and senior PSB executives.

And, the resistance from bank staff and employees unions and local political interest could pose a formidable challenge. C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), said there is absolutely no case for consolidation. There is enough space for many banks to do business when half the population is yet come under the ambit of financial services, he said.

Adding that the unions will begin agitations against the move to merge some state-run banks with other larger ones. AIBEA will prepare detailed plans in early August, he said.

Earlier, mergers of commercial banks with public sector lenders was predominantly done at the behest of the Reserve Bank of India and the government. This was mainly to salvage a troubled bank and protect depositors’ interest. One prominent example of a private lender being merged into a state-owned bank was of the new-generation Global Trust Bank (GTB) with Oriental Bank of India. Hyderabad-based GTB landed in trouble due to aggressive lending often flouting prudential norms.

A second example is of United Western Bank (UWB), an older generation private bank, merged with IDBI Bank. UWB faced problems with a mounting bad loan book and maintaining the prescribed capital adequacy. It was thought that its wide network in the semi-urban and rural parts of Maharashtra would provide IDBI a footprint in building priority sector loans. The latter has had limited success in doing so.

Compared to mergers with PSBs, experts believe those of private sector banks, done more voluntarily, have been smoother. Shinjini Kumar, executive director, PwC, says when two lenders from the same sector are merged, there is an advantage.

"The upside in such cases is that both the parties will have a similar background, focus and structure. Therefore, the consolidation process is a little easier. However, any merger requires a very detailed plan and every merger has some or the other hiccup," he added.

HDFC Bank's merger with Times Bank was smooth. To ensure this, an external human resource consultancy was hired to manage the people integration. ICICI Bank's merger with Bank of Rajasthan also had not met with many obstacles. BoR's acquisition helped ICICI strengthen its network in western and northern India. BOR was under the Reserve Bank of India's and the Securities & Exchange Board of India's scanner at the time and the merger was a bailout for it
Link Business Standard




Bank staff body lists 406 bad loan a/c worth Rs 70k cr
AIBEA also demanded the government release the list of major loan defaulters and make recovery norms stringent
The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has released the details of 406 bad loan accounts with public sector banks. These 406 loans account for non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs 70,300 crore.

"The total NPA in public-sector banks till September, 2013, was Rs 2.36 lakh crore. The bad loans restructured and shown as good loans amount to another Rs 3.25 lakh crore. This is public money and it has to be recovered for the benefit of the public," AIBEA General- Secretary C H Venkatachalam told reporters while releasing the list of defaulters here on Tuesday.

Venkatachalam said the NPAs registered by all public sector banks in March 2008 was Rs 39,000 crore. The bad loans constituted by the top four defaulters in public sector banks is around Rs 23,000 crore and the bad loans in top-30 bad loan accounts in 24 banks is Rs 70,300 crore. Fresh bad loans in public sector banks in the last seven years is Rs 4.95 lakh crore.

According to AIBEA, bad loans written off in the past 13 years come to the tune of Rs 2.04 lakh crore. Profits transferred and adjusted for provisions toward bad loans from 2008 to 2013 was Rs 1.40 lakh crore. The bad loans in 172 corporate accounts of Rs 100 crore or above was Rs 37,000 crore, it added.

AIBEA also demanded that the government release the list of major loan defaulters and make loan-recovery norms stringent so that action under criminal procedure can be taken against wilful defaulters.

If top bank executives are responsible for the increase in NPA, then there should be investigation against them and, if found guilty, they should be punished, the Association said.

According to Venkatachalam, political as well as corporate nexus was also a reason behind the increase in NPAs. Almost 65 per cent of the total bad loan is taken by industry, he added.

He said AIBEA would publish a larger list of about 3,000 bad loan accounts that have defaulted Rs 1 crore and above each. The Association also mulls protesting in front of the defaulted firms and publishing their names in public places.

Last year, AIBEA had released a list of the top-50 bad loan accounts. It had observed an All India Demands Day to highlight the issue on December 5, 2013. The Association has about 500,000 bank employees as members.

What Trade Union Leaders Are Doing?

Bank employees are eagerly waiting for wage revision which is due since November 2012. There are other several issues which need the attention of those who are said to be well wisher of bank staff.

There is practically no stagnation for central government employees as per last pay commission recommendation and as accepted by government of India. Why is there stagnation in pay scale meant for only bank employees particularly when bank is not in a position to accommodate so many candidates in higher scale due to their own constraints and when there are fewer vacancies?

For none of fault of senior officers, they are denied not only promotions but also annual increment.

When banks do not find such senior officers for promotions, bank should not hesitate in accepting resignation of such officers and allow full pension and retirement benefits. But there is no justification for stopping annual increment. By denying increments to all, bank management is creating anomalies in pension payments too. An employee who worked for 30 years and an employee who worked for 40 years will get almost same amount of pension if they leave the bank. In near future even an employee who worked for  20 years to 25 years will get higher pension who have been serving bank for more than 30 to 35 years. It is important to note that pension is calculated maximum for 33 years of service even if an employee has worked for 40 years.

Officers who have transferred from outside states to North East States were getting so many incentives as per 1984 circular or as guidelines of IBA as prevalent for central government employees working in other sectors in eighties. Why these incentives have not been revised during last 25 years?

Special allowance fixed Rs.1200/ or Rs.1500/ for specified area is common for all staff posted in North East region. What about additional benefits for those who are transferred from other states to North East?

For outsiders, there was a provision of Rs.1500. p.m. in 1984 when Rs.1500/ was a significant amount compared to prevailing scale of pay for officers at that time. Now even that Rs.1500/ (it should be at least 10000 in view of price rise and scale rise during last 25 years) or 12.5% of pay has been abolished.

Originally North East posting policy was framed for enthusing employees to serve in north eastern based branches for two years and then they were given preferred posting. Unfortunately this holy policy is now misused by greedy and corrupt executives to sideline good officers from their path of earning illegal money and golden gifts.

Incentives of preferred and choice posting to employees who served North east branches for two years also stands snatched. Preferred posting after completion of two years tenure also lies on the mercy of top officials. There is no shame feeling in the minds of ED or top executives when they  violate the existing policy or misuse the same in the name of bank’s exigencies.

After all management of PS banks know that Indian judiciary cannot decide the case even in two to three decades. And they also know the art of delaying hearing on court cases associated with bank employees’ promotion or posting or payment. They also know the art of buying trade union leaders or building pressure on trade union leaders so that they may reconcile with whims of top officials of management.

God knows what union leaders are doing?

There are lacs of bank employees who are continuously working in rural areas for one or two decades or even more. On the other hand there are  lacs of bank employees who are continuously posted in Metros and Urban areas. Unfortunately only a section of employees are facing frequent transfers from one corner to the other corner of the country.

God knows l what union leaders are doing?

Answer is that trade union leaders are also standing in the same que in which a team of flatterers are standing to get maximum benefit from higher bosses, cream posting, reckless earning through credit lending or waiver of loan without any fear of action from higher bosses and get preferred promotions for their flatterer members if they so like.


It is therefore better to say All is Well sir, No problem sir, everything will be o.k. sir, I am there don't worry, I will manage it, I will manage media people, I will manage CBI people and so on. These wordings are a few permanent wording of flatterers.

In past , several writ petitions have been filed against arbitrary promotion of some officers and whimsical denial to some others. Cases have also been filed against whimsical changes every year undertaken by bank management in promotion policies merely to suit the candidates of their choices. But none of such cases could reach the final judgement. 

Even the cases pertaining to historic injustice in recovery of money from bank staff for giving them 2nd option of pension filed in various High courts are languishing for last four to five years only because petitioner cannot afford spending lacs of rupees whereas bank management sacrifice crores of rupees on advocates in abortion of such court cases which may expose their involvement in  corruption  . Trade Union leaders who worked in nexus with top officials of management in arriving at agreement on lines dictated by government of India and IBA in IX Bipartite settlement are almost playing the role of management so far as suppression of interest of bank staff is concerned..

A few executives by using their mobile phones using some flatterer Branch Managers to extend credit to unscrupulous borrowers and sacrificing huge amount in compromise and waiver of loan scheme just to earn some illegal money and quicker promotions.

Banks assets worth thousands and thousands of crores of rupees are locked and lost in bad borrowers every year whereas government of India, RBI and all regulating agencies remain silent spectators.

People have seen how NPA rose 500% during last few  years in Public Sector Bank but regulating agencies are not ready to accept that health of these bank will deteriorate in future . There is in fact none to bell the cat.

Branch Manager of a bank is passing through his bad days.
His boss ask for growth in deposit as they desire, they want lending , accepting bribe from borrowers and then pay bribe to government departments for mobilizing bulk deposit. They (bosses) do not mind if loan sanctioned by Branch head goes bad provided bribe earned by Branch head is honestly shared with bosses and a little portion of such ill earned money is tactfully spent on auditors, vigilance officers and other visiting officials. 

Branch Manager who is master in art of giving bribe and accepting bribe can only succeed in his career; he can get cream posting and quickest promotion and it is he who gets respect and recognition in all meetings and interviews.

On the other hand if a Branch Manager avoids sanction of loan to bad persons he will earn bad name in his locality, his bosses will rebuke him for not achieving target fixed for lending and for other parameters. If he does not adopt path of flattery and bribery he may be transferred to such a place where bad assets are enormous and the person who sanctioned bad loan is now one of top ranked executive. In every meeting with bosses, such branch managers are main target because they fail to recover the money from bad borrowers as per whims and fancies of the bosses. Such BMs are always stressed and frustrated in life and face humiliation in all meetings and rejected in promotion processes. 

It is bitter truth in a bank that accountability is never fixed on officers who caused the assets to become bad but fixed on officers who is not perfect Yesman of his bosses.

As such if one has to remain in power, he or she must learn the art of flattery and bribery. Let the bank go to hell, let the assets turn from good to bad and from bad to worst, but do not forget to extend red carpet welcome to bosses when they visit to your branch, do not forget to offer golden and diamond gifts to bosses whenever you met them and take care of all persons, goods and services which and whom bosses like. 

For God sake, please do not dare express verbally or in writing such truths which may hurt your bosses even if you sincerely feel that expression of such truth may save your lovely bank from considerable losses.

Please keep in mind that since all bad assets which were created and concealed by top executives during their posting as branch head or regional head are now exposed due to RBI’s directive to declare NPA only as per system. As such even CMDs and EDs are getting the same humiliating treatment when they meet Ministers, Finance Secretaries, and senior officers in various regulating offices and even in press conferences .General Managers are rebuked by CMDs and EDs and then GM rebukes DGMs and AGMS and in the same way culture of firing percolates down the level and upto field officials. 

In such environment, willingly or unwillingly one is tempted to adopt corrupt path of flattery and bribery or that of remaining a silent spectator tolerating all stresses and strains GENERATED DUE TO HIS POOR OR so called non performance. Former keeps one healthy and pleasant whereas the later makes him sick of several diseases.

Now you have to decide what is good and what is bad for you. 

It may be kept in mind that if the loan sanctioned by you become NPA and loss asset I future, you have several common excuses to offer before bosses such as , “there is global recession”, “sir loan became bad due to high rate of interest”, “due to bad weather business could not yield desired result” and so on.

Even CMDs and EDs are putting such excuses before MOF and RBI for unprecedented rise in bad assets in their bank. There is none to accuse you of indulging in bribery and neither can anyone prove it .

No action can be initiated against you even if the account goes bad because management also fear that punitive action may adversely affect the lending programme and bank may fail to achieve the target set for credit growth. 

There is no valid excuse for non achievement of lending target but there are several acceptable excuses for asset turning bad and for non recovery in bad accounts. 

If you are flatterer and yesman , your all sins even that of bribery and on performance are excused, but if you pose to be perfect you have to face the music of modern era and invite several diseases and family problems.