Stanchart Grindlays Staff On 48-Hour Strike

Employees of StandardChartered Grindlays Bank have gone on a 48 hour strike from today here following issue of transfer orders to 27 staff members to the Darjeeling branch. All the employees were posted at the local headoffice in the city.

Management sources said the two strikes are designed to thwart attempts to service customers of Standard Chartered Bank through SCGrindlays Bank. ATM's of both the banks at all locations were also blocked by employees in a blatantly illegal act.

Insiders said a skeletal service was being offered to select corporate clients from rented offices at Taj Bengal and Oberoi Grand hotels and from a location at Salt Lake.

"We are servicing a few select clients, mainly corporate, on a priority basis," said an employee from the bank on condition of anonymity.

Customers are being seriously inconvenienced as most clients are not being able to withdraw cash. Cheque facilities were being maintained for larger clients.

The general secretary of the Grindlays Bank Employees Union, Dilip Dutta, said it was the first time in 60 years of the bank that staff had been transferred to Darjeeling from the city.

The recruitment and promotion process in Darjeeling was governed by a parallel system, he alleged.

However, insiders said Dutta was wrong. The management pointed out today that all award staff at Darjeeling branch had applied for VRS and hence the transfer was inevitable and valid.

By going on strike, StandardChartered Grindlays staff have joined the staff of Standard Chartered Bank, who is on indefinite strike from Saturday following an order transferring a big block of employees to another location in the city.

According to unions at the bank, the transfer issue has been referred to the Regional Labour Commissioner (RLC), but the management has ignored the RLC.