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SBI staff federation calls for strike

Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI: P.K. Patnaik, Secretary, All India State Bank of India Staff Federation on Friday reiterated the federation's decision to go on a nationwide token strike on March 28 protesting against the continued indifferent attitude of the Government towards its long-pending 4-point charter of demands.

He was addressing a meeting after inaugurating the 20th General Body meeting of the SBI Staff Union, Hyderabad Circle at the Urban Haat complex here. Listing out the "legitimate and just" demands of the federation, Mr. Patnayak lashed at the anti-employees stance of the Government and the management despite a tremendous increase in the work load on the staff following a sea change in the working of the banking industry as a whole in the country. The demands, he said broadly related to the improvements required in the welfare measures, and payment of overtime allowance or increase staff strength. As for the need to scale up the welfare measures in the SBI, Mr. Patnaik criticised the Government's decision to restrict it to a mere Rs.10 crores or 3 per cent of its profit whichever is less irrespective of the size of the bank and its staff strength. He regretted that despite a heavy increase in the workload following implementation of Core Banking Solutions, the management was neither lifting the ban on the recruitment in force for the last decade nor was it paying the staff the over-time wages to compensate their inevitable working beyond the working hours.

Regarding the revision of pension, the union leader lamented that though the other bank employees were drawing pension based on new scales without any ceiling, Government was not allowing the SBI alone to revise the pension and declared that it was to exert pressure on the Government that the federation called for a nationwide strike on March 28.

This is besides a similar nationwide one day token strike scheduled for March, 9 called by the United Forum of Bank Unions demanding revival of the compassionate appointments in the banking industry.

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