The United Forum of Bank Unions (Maharashtra State) has sought safe transportation for employees, branches to be run with 50 per cent staff, and insurance coverage of ₹50 lakh, among others, in the backdrop of 11 bank employees losing their lives due to Covid in the Mumbai metropolitan region.
Devidas Tuljapurkar, Convenor, UFBU (Maharashtra), in a letter to the Secretary, Department of Financial Services, said the State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), Maharashtra, should be advised to arrange for safe transportation, which employees can avail within a radius of about 2 km from his/her residence to his/her work place.
The demand for transportation comes as majority of bank employees working in Mumbai city branches / offices stay in the suburbs or outside and many travel from beyond Mumbai urban agglomeration areas.
“The banks are not providing any conveyance facility to these employees and public transport such as local railway, metro are shut down. BEST services are very few with less frequency and State Transport Department is not allowing bank employees under the pretext that they are not covered under essential services,” said Tuljapurkar.
Security arrangements
UFBU has sought appropriate security arrangements at all branches. Further, it wants the SLBC to ensure that branches are sanitised regularly and entry is properly regulated.
Each state has a SLBC, which is an apex inter-institutional forum, for development of the State. In the case of Maharashtra, Bank of Maharashtra, is the SLBC convenor bank.
“Most banks have abandoned guards at the entrance and do not have permanent sweepers and, thus, security and cleanliness are also compromised and banks are unable to regulate customer traffic at the entrance.
“All this has resulted into great risk not only to the lives of the bank employees, but also to the lives of their dependents and neighbours,” said the UFBU-Maharashtra convenor.
UFBU said branches should be run with 50 per cent staff, with alternate day attendance and the remaining staff working from home. Further, employees above age 50 and women employees should be given work from home option.
Employees suffering from diabetes, blood pressure and chronic ailments should also be permitted to work from home.
The trade union body said branches should be run with flexi-time of 4 hours for business as the commutation time of employees has become very long due to non-availability of local train.
UFBU-Mahrashtra has sought ₹1,000 as discomfort allowance for employees for the days they are attending duty. It also wants the Central Government compensation scheme of ₹50 lakh insurance for the unfortunate death of public healthcare providers, including community health workers, to be extended to bank employees, along with compassionate appointments.