Reduced business hours, a roster of alternate day working for staff and only one branch in a cluster operating on any given day are safeguards an umbrella body of bank employees and officers unions wants bank managements to implement in the face of a raging COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, Telangana State Unit Convenor of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) R.Sriram submitted a representation to Finance Minister Harish Rao underscoring the significance of these measures.
Appealing to the Minister to issue necessary directions to the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC), the UFBU letter said guidelines on functioning of banks in the State need to be revisited given the present, alarming situation when huge increase is being observed in the COVID-19 positive cases, particularly since relaxation of lockdown measures.
Following the increased footfalls in all banks/branches, bankers figure in high-risk category. The non-availability of adequate personnel for crowd management and social distancing norms not being followed by customers were reasons behind many bank staff contracting the virus. Mr.Sriram estimates the number of bankers who have tested positive for COVID-19 to be around 1,000.
“It is a fact that at least one branch has got affected every day in the last three weeks and the employees of the respective branches had to undergo home quarantine for two weeks. [Also] uniform procedure for staff quarantine as per the standard operating procedure (SOP) is not followed in many banks,” the UFBU representation to the Minister said. Several bank employees and officers have also succumbed to COVID-19.
5-day week
Noting that the Minister gave a patient hearing, Mr.Sriram said five day week for banks with all Saturdays being declared holiday is another measure suggested by UFBU. At present, second and fourth Saturdays are holidays, in addition to all Sundays. Kerala and Karnataka governments had already directed banks to declare all Saturdays as holidays, while Odisha has approved rescheduling of bank working hours and operation of branches with not more than 50% staff.
UFBU-TS unit wants business hours of banks to be restricted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; big branches and administrative offices to function with 50% staff and only one branch to be operated in a cluster area that has multiple branches. A delegation of leaders from the Forum had also met Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar recently and submitted a representation.
