Corporation Bank Follows Public Sector Peers, Weighs Vrs

Corporation Bank, the only public sector bank (PSB) not to offer a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to its staff in the first round, today said it is considering a VRS to improve its performance.

"We have done our manpower planning. We will assess our manpower requirement till 2006 and offer VRS to some and inject fresh blood as well," K Cherian Varghese, chairman told reporters after a board meeting here.

Of the 10,250 staff, he said the exact number who could be offered VRS was yet to be ascertained as it will require approval from the government and the bank's board.

The move is part of a restructuring that the bank has undertaken after its strategic tie-up with the Life Insurance Corporation last year.

Corporation Bank employees had gone on strike seeking VRS as the bank was left out in the first round of retrenchment that was kicked off by PSBs, while the Bank of Baroda staff went on a stir seeking a second VRS.

Corporation Bank joins the list of PSBs planning to launch a VRS after Bank of India and Central Bank of India said that they intend to come out with a staff reduction plan. There are indications that the State Bank of India, the largest bank in the country, will also offer a scheme to its employees.

Finance ministry officials said the government would leave it to individual banks to decide on the package. Banks would, however, be required to obtain a clearance from the government before launching the scheme.

In the first round of VRS among PSBs, over 1 lakh employees opted for the scheme. The PSBs received 1,26,711 applications and incurred Rs 10,293 crore with a provision to amortise the expenditure over five years.

Bankers said that increasingly banks would join the VRS spree as they were resorting to technology and looking at recruiting specialists.