SBI's associate Bank employees to go on strike on May 20

The move is against the decision to close down associate banks and merge them with SBI

Employees of State Bank of India's (SBI's) associate banks plan to go on an all-India strike on May 20, to protest the move to extinguish the identity of these banks and merge them with the parent.

C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) alleged on Tuesday, that in a board meeting of the associate banks, an agenda was brought without notice at the behest of SBI, to close down the associate banks and merge them with SBI despite opposition from the other Directors.

"Rise in protest and hold demonstrations before Associate Banks today evening and tomorrow," said Venkatachalam, adding that all employees of associate banks will go on an all-India strike on May 20.

The five associate banks are: State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) and State Bank of Patiala (SBP).

Venkatachalam was critical of  the manner in which the proposal was pushed and the procedure adopted in order to have pass the resolution.

He said, when the Government is talking of good corporate governance practices, the Board agenda is brought without intimation on such a serious matter and decision is taken.

This decision is also not in consonance with what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has suggested during the union officials meeting with him on March 23 and April 25. He had opined that all the five Banks can be made into one single entity. But what SBI and the Associate Banks are trying to do is just the opposite, said Venkatachalam.

"To express our resentment and protest to this provocative action of the SBI and Associate Banks, we call upon all our members to hold demonstrations today and tomorrow before branches of Associate Banks," he said adding that employees in the five Associate Banks will go on strike on May 20, 2016.