Shastri clause may checkmate bank unions

Staff will have to accept transfers within linguistic zones

Bank managements are on the warpath to stall any move by trade unions to disrupt their working in wake of the one-day strike on August 24, invoked over the fast conclusion of wage pact negotiations. The last five-year wage agreement expired in November 2002.

The negotiations could not be completed as the unions have rejected the management's demand of "mobility" within the state.

In other words, the management wanted a commitment from employees to accept transfers within a state as a precondition for the settlement.

With the unions rejecting it, the management is planning to invoke the Shastri award to thrash out the differences. The implementation of Shastri award will allow bank management to transfer employees anywhere within a linguistic zone. If implemented, a bank employee can be transferred anywhere in the north as Hindi is the common language there.

"The unions are agreeing to transfers within a district. But this is not acceptable to us. We may have to invoke the Shastri award. So far, we have accepted the employees' demand on transfer without any prejudice to the award," said a senior banker.

With computerisation of most bank branches, manpower in urban centres are in surplus said the executive director of a public sector bank. The implementation of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) has also failed to solve the problem of surplus man power, he added.

Banks want to move surplus staff to rural areas as they are under pressure from the government to double their exposures to farm sector in three years.

The unions, on the other hand, pointed out that public sector bank employees are under tremendous work load after the voluntary retirement schemes of 2000, when almost 110,000 officers and award staff (clerical and sub-staff) hung up their boots.

As a compensation for increased work load, the unions, representing officers, have demanded a 15 per cent increase in wages.

This translates into an annual burden of Rs 1,020 crore for banks against 12.25 per cent (Rs 600 crore) arrived at in the seventh bipartite settlement.