Govt May Lift Freeze On Fresh Bank Recruitments

The government has signalled a partial relaxation on the near-freeze on fresh recruitments in public sector banks, and is allowing new recruits on a case to case basis.

The approval is being given for recruitment at the officer grade, and one of the first banks to receive the nod is Punjab & Sind Bank, which has been recently allowed to take in 75 officers.

The approval is in response to the banks' plea for young recruits in their staff to operate new technology.

"If one wants PSU banks to be competitive, then there can't be a complete ban on fresh blood. There was practically no recruitment in the banks during the past few years but now the government is selectively allowing limited number at the officer grade," a senior banker said.

However, there is no restriction on recruitment for banks which have attained "autonomous" status.

PSU bankers point out that the extension of retirement age for nationalised bank staff to 60 from 58 will not defer annual retirements this year and the next, nor will it raise the mean age of the banks' employees. This is because the personnel set to retire this year are the ones who have already attained sixty years of age.

Immediately after the government had made the announcement on raising of the retirement age, bankers had expressed fears that fresh recruitment in the bank would be the first caualty of the move.

While, there has been a general slowdown in recruitment in the PSU banking sector since 1991, recruitment in banks with huge NPA and accumulated losses have totally stopped as part of their turnaround strategy.