Committee On Psu Banks Recommends Lowering Retirement Age, Right-Sizing

The committee on human resources management for public sector undertaking (PSU) banks has recommended bringing down the retirement age for bank employees from 60 to 58 years and "right sizing" the manpower through voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and offering sabbatical.

The committee set up by the Indian Banks Association (IBA), as part of the decisions taken during the meeting between finance minister Yashwant Sinha and chief executives of the public sector banks in June this year, presented its report to Sinha yesterday.

''In its final report, the committee laid emphasis on right-sizing the manpower, and besides VRS and sabbatical recommended rolling back the age of retirement from 60 to 58 years'', an IBA statement said here.

The other recommendations related to the process of recruitment, transfer and placement policies, re-structuring of grades/pay scales, technological upgradation, induction of new skills including computer literacy and training, autonomy to banks to introduce performance-linked rewards and incentive and deterrent for non-performance assessment,'' the statement said.

The six-member committee included the IBA chairman, and the chairman and managing director of the Punjab National Bank, S S Kohli; deputy managing director of State Bank of India, Y Radhakrishnan; chairman of UCO Bank, V P Shetty and secretary of IBA, K C Chaudhari.