Bank unions in the country have been appalled that just a day after they struck work on August 22 mainly to press the Centre to back off from its plan for merger of public sector banks, the Union Cabinet has decided to set up a mechanism to facilitate the amalgamations.
“This shows the rulers’ utter disregard for the concerns of the one-million bank staff in the country,” C.D. Josson, Kerala State coordinator of the United Forum of Bank Unions, the nine-union collective that covers the majority of staff in the banking industry, told The Hindu.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday took an `in-principle decision’ to set up an `alternative mechanism’ to facilitate the mergers among the 20 public sector banks. The mechanism would most probably be in the form of a Group of Ministers (GoM), unions pointed out.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had, after the Cabinet decision, said that boards of directors of the public sector banks could make proposals for the mergers and amalgamation and the proposed body would take a quick decision on them. He had hinted that the process of mergers, which would create stronger and fewer banks, would start in a few months.
Parliament march
The UFBU has called for nationwide protests. In Kerala, unions belonging to the UFBU will hold lunchtime protest demonstration in all cities. Mr. Josson said the UFBU was planning to take a march, comprising one-lakh bank employees to Parliament House on September 15. The All-India Bank Officers’ Confederation, in a statement by its general secretary D.T. Franco, said it opposed the approval for the mechanism for mergers. The decision, just a day after a `successful national strike’ against mergers, indicated that the government was not bothered about public opinion.
Mr. Franco recalled that the Prime Minister had told Parliament that there was no plan for bank mergers. He noted that the SBI had made a huge loss in the first quarter of 2016-17.
The SBI had also reduced interest on saving accounts under ₹1 crore. So far, the bank had shut down 578 branches across the country and in Kerala, it was planning to close 178 branches.