566 Opt For Stanchart, Grindlays Ers

The early retirement scheme (ERS) of Standard Chartered Bank and Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank, which closed on June 25, has seen 566 employees of the non-management cadre putting in their papers. In percentage terms, this works out to over 40 per cent of the targeted staff.

Both the banks combined have around 4,600 employees. Of the 1,450-odd staff, who were eligible for the scheme, 88 were due for promotion.

At Standard Chartered Grindlays, 547 of the 1,116 staff applied for the ERS. Comparatively, the response was poor at Standard Chartered with only 19 employees, of the 249, opting for the scheme.

The chunk of applications came from the south followed by north, west and east. From Mumbai, 168 staff have applied for the scheme, while 137 applications came from south which includes Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Bangalore.

The scheme, which had opened on May 26, was able to attract 503 applications before June 6 owing to the early-bird incentive where salaries of up to eight months were given to employees who opted for it. The average pay-out would be over Rs 19 lakh per person. There will now be relocation of the remaining 782 staff.

However, according to the union agreement, the bank can transfer the non-management staff only within the state or within an area with the same language.

"The bank is changing its focus and moving forward. The new focus will require a certain type and caliber of people. The remaining staff will have to be redeployed and retrained. The surplus staff will be retained and the skill sets of these people will also have to change," said a bank official.

The scheme was the largest-ever separation scheme introduced by any foreign bank operating in India. Standard Chartered Bank had spent Rs 165.4 crore on a voluntary retirement scheme in 1999 before its merger with ANZ Grindlays Bank.