The All-India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) On Thursday said that it was planning a strike in State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) subsidiary banks in the first week of July to protest the country’s largest lender’s decision to merge these entities with itself.
AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said the SBI management has made it clear that it would expedite the process of merger. The Association had chalked out the strike plan in view of this immediate threat, Venkatachalam added.
Yesterday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said the government would support public sector banks’ (PSBs’) plans on consolidation to enhance the competitiveness of Indian banks globally, he pointed out.
Venkatachalam was of the view that the Indian banking industry did not need consolidation of banks. Rather, what was required On Thursday was expansion of PSBs. In order to achieve the objective of total financial inclusion, PSBs have to proliferate and expand in un-banked areas, he said.
While on the one hand, consolidation and global competition would result in monopoly of a few big banks and deviation from the needs of the common man and social sectors, on the other, it would push these banks and their resources towards bailing out corporate houses – domestic and foreign.
Merger of banks would lead to closure of a large number of bank branches, thereby curtailing banking services for the masses. The closure of branches would also jeopardise jobs of bank employees, he said.
Mere merger of banks would not make them financially stronger. Nor were these PSBs created for global competition, Venkatachalam argued.
So, both from the country’s point of view and the point of view of social objectives of these banks, the policy of merger was unwarranted and highly retrograde, he contended.
“If the government, or the Reserve Bank of India, or any bank management takes any unilateral measure towards merger and consolidation of PSBs, it would be protested with nation-wide strikes by bank employees,” he threatened.
The General Council of AIBEA has been convened in Mumbai on July 9 and 10 to chart out the future course of action, Venkatachalam said.
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