Condition of Employees in PSU Banks
Over 20,00,000 students contest banking exams every year in hope of good working and learning opportunities. Banking Industry in India is one of the biggest employers in the country with over 1200000 employees in PSU Banks (including Regional Rural Banks) and around 400000 employees in Private banks. But banks have been going through a lot of distress and negativity for past 4-5 years with mounting Non Performing Assets and growing in-contingent liabilities. The latest in the list is 11300cr scam at PNB which has jolted already ailing banking industry. But at times when sentiments are bad among public, one who suffers the most is the staff associated with banks. We are here with the actual conditions in which banking staff is working and what are the day to day problems being faced by them.
- No timings: Banking staff especially officers, are trained from Day 1 that an officer has no Day end time. He is on duty of the bank till the bank requires. He is called for duty on holidays, denying to which makes you an inefficient officer. In most of the bank branches officers are working for more than 11 hours every day. This affects the staff in multiple ways.
- Social Life is spoiled
- Dissatisfaction grows
- Self-Importance and Self-Confidence is shattered.
- High Pressure with very high Risk: We bankers deal in money. We bankers (especially PSU bankers) are forced by the government agencies to provide different type of loans to public, and this affect asset quality. When such loans go NPA, bank management are the first people to turn the tables and you are held accountable for the loss being done to bank.
Here is an incident which actually happened: (we will not name the bank and place)
IN a meeting which is conferred in every district, A PSU bank and A private Bank were behind targets allotted to her in Government sponsored Schemes. Collector scolded the manager of the PSU bank for not doing adequate advances in government sponsored schemes (Nothing was told to Private bank) This is known as pressure on PSU banks. No manager discretion has left. A force keeps on working on every level of banking. And this all happens when we were the warriors of Jan Dhan Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and other government schemes.
- Late and Insufficient Wage Revisions: Bank wage revision is scheduled to take place in November every 5 years. Last wage revision which was due in November 2012, was Negotiated in June, 2015, a delay of 3 years. As on date a newly recruited Probationary Officers gets a net salary of around Rs.42000/- (including Basic + DA + Spl Allowance), and that of a clerical entering bank is around 21000/- This salary in insufficient and demoralizes. The latest wage revision of banks is due since November 2017, for which meetings have been ending without any decision.
- Banks are marketplace: From Aadhaar, implementing government schemes to Bank-assurance, banks are dealing in many jobs which has shifted its focus from what they were meant for. To make things worse there are targets associated to everything. Pressures have been mounting on banks with loads of work. Branches are opening at 9 in the morning and keep on working till 9 in the evening.
- Staff Shortage: Banks are dealing with excessive shortage of staff members, which is due to the fact that no hiring’s happened till 2012. Now as RBI had implemented PCA on various banks, new staff recruitment has stopped. This has increased the load on already loaded banking staff members.
- Respect has Eroded: Bankers had been working very hard from a long time. Bankers were respected for their work among public. But now this job is loosing her shine. People throng branches for loans and if you deny, people start abusing you with false allegations and complaints.
- No HR Policies: HR policies in banks are not good. If you deny an order given by administration, you are liable to get transferred to different location as a punishment. Some people from affluent background can move to their home cities within no time, but other keep on waiting. Buttering concept applies here. There is demoralizing.
We would like to declare that we are associated to no political party, are not members of any anti-banking groups and are also not here to criticize banking practices. We are just here to give a few hard realities of banking these days, especially in PSU Banks.
