Union threatens strike against State Bank of Indore-SBI merger

The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) is planning to go on a one-day strike by November-end to protest the proposed merger of State Bank of Indore with State Bank of India (SBI). While terming the merger a “violation” against the agreement, the union also said it would consider going on an indefinite strike if the merger was pursued.

The union’s reaction comes after SBI submitted a copy of ‘Scheme of Acquisition of State Bank of Indore by SBI’ to the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

CH Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA, told Business Standard that in June, the labour minister had called the bank management and told them not to pursue the merger, which was agreed upon by the management and the union representatives.

“Its clearly a violation by the SBI management, we have decided to go on a one-day strike by the end of this month against the decision,” said Venkatachalam.

The union representatives are likely to meet on Thursday or Friday to decide the date of the strike.

“I am not ruling out an indefinite strike,” he added.

He further said that the bank (State Bank of Indore) was doing well, even outperforming SBI, so what was the point of merging the bank? Moreover, if the bank was merged, then its ability to support regional development would be lost, felt Venkatachalam.

He pointed out that business per employee at State Bank of Indore was Rs 7.01 crore, whereas for SBI, it was Rs 5.56 crore only. Similarly, advances per employee for State Bank of Indore is Rs 3.43 crore as against Rs 2.63 crore for SBI, deposits per employee for the former is Rs 4.50 crore against Rs 3.40 crore for the latter and priority sector lending is 34 per cent for State Bank of Indore compared to 26 per cent for SBI.