Stanchart Forcing Staff To Take Vrs, Allege Unions

Bank unions here today alleged that the Standard Chartered Bank management has resorted to illegal activities in a bid to force clerical staffs to accept the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).

Tarakeswar Chakroborty, general secretary, the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), said the recent transfers to New Delhi and Chennai at the bank is against the terms of the subsisting Sastri Award provisions in operation since 1953.

According to the award, the industry level bipartite agreement which is binding on all banks including foreign banks, clerical staffs and members of the subordinate staff can never be transferred beyond his linguistic area where he was originally recruited.

Further, the recruitment letters to the concerned staff mention that their service can only be utilised in Kolkata and Howrah district. The bank's own recruitment letters have also been violated, he said.

There were as many as 350 clerical staff in various StanChart branches here. Four VRS schemes in five years have brought down the number to 72.

Chakroborty and other union leaders accused that the management was keen on bringing this number to zero, and start outsourcing. All jobs of regular and perennial nature are being executed on contractual basis.

The number of contract labour working inside the bank but designated as "executives or officers", so as to keep them off the Industrial Disputes Act, was six to seven times the number of regular employees of the bank. This number in the city was 1,600, they said.

The Bengal Provincial Bank Employees Union has called a statewide strike on December 14 to protest the "atrocities" of the StanChart management.