More than 500 employees of the State Bank of Mysore (SBM) in the district went on a strike, to protest its proposed merger with the SBI, here on Friday.
They were supported by the employees of other associate banks of the SBI which too are slated to be merged by the government in pursuance of its policy of consolidation of banks.
The employees assembled in front of the main branch of the SBM at Nehru Circle and raised slogans against the government’s policy.
Though the staff in the official cadre worked, the branches were closed for public, affecting all transactions. There are nearly 70 branches of the SBM in Mysuru district alone and has a rural penetration by virtue of it being the district Lead Bank to cater to the priority sector lending.
R. Raghavendra, General Secretary of Mysore District Bank Employees’ Association and representative of workers on the SBM Board, told The Hindu that this was only the first stage of their protest and the strike will be intensified to protect their interests in case the government did not rollback the proposed merger.
He said there were genuine concerns that merger would result in staff retrenchment following branch rationalisation drive besides transfers that will affect their morale. The union members fear the merger will also pave way for privatisation and hence the All India Bank Employees’ Association is opposed to it.
The Association said mergers will result in the collapse of the banking system and enable foreign banks to operate, paving way for privatisation. “Once the proposed merger is allowed, it will be followed by consolidation exercise of the entire banking industry to be followed by rationalisation of the banking branch structure. At a time when there are talks of financial inclusion and mushrooming of banks for greater penetration, the Government is planning to downsize the number of public sector banks,” the release added, dubbing the merger move as anti-people in nature.
Special Correspondent reports from Bidar:
‘Non-transparent’ decision
Employees of the State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Mysore joined the nationwide strike in protest against the merger of associate banks of State Bank of India, in Bidar on Friday.
Employees demonstrated before the SBH main branch and shouted slogans against the merger. They said that they opposed not only the merger, but also the ‘non-transparent’ way in which the decision was taken.
They also said that the management had not considered alternatives suggested by the employees such as forming another public sector bank by merging all the associate banks, that could function independently of the SBI. They suspected that this was a ploy to weaken the public sector banking industry and to allow multinational banks to take over Indian public banks.
Customers and traders suffered as there were no transactions in SBH and SBM that are the leading banks in the district. Pawan Kulkarni, joint secretary of the SBH employees union, and leaders including Yankappa, and Karuna Devi led the strike.
Special Correspondent reports from Belagavi:
'Harbinger of turbulence'
The one-day strike by employees of the associate banks of SB in Belagavi and other parts of the State and country on Friday will be a "harbinger for total turbulence in the banking industry", according to the agitating employees here.
The government move would finally end not only in the collapse of the domestic banking sector but also enable foreign banks to take over Indian banks, the alleged.
