Sangli Bank staff oppose merger

About 2,000 employees of the Sangli Bank Ltd have opposed the move to merge with ICICI. They, however, prefer merger with a nationalised bank. The employees have continued their agitation and demonstrations and threatened to resort to indefinite strike.

The Sangli Bank's merger decision was taken by the bank's director board without consulting the employees and ignoring their demand, according to M R Gandhi, chief of Sangli Bank Employees Union (SBEU).

Gandhi said that the SBEU would join hands with the All India Bank Employees Association for pressing the demand for merger with a nationalised bank.

Giving the reasons for the opposition to the merger move, Gandhi alleged that the ICICI management was against employees' interests as had happened in the case of the Madurai Bank of Kerala.

Of the 4,000 employees of the Madurai Bank, only 350 were retained after its merger with ICICI and the remaining were forced to retire.

"Keeping this in mind, the Sangli Bank employees do not want to take any risk. The employees would rather agitate and, if necessary, resort to legal recourse," said Gandhi.