Bank commissions NIBM study to look into staff redeployment option

Ujjal K Basu Roy & Pandharinath Pawar

Mumbai, April 16: THE voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) offered by the State Bank of India (SBI) has affected the functioning of a vast majority of its branches in Mumbai.

The bank is now having an internal study done by the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) to examine the option of staff redeployment.

Chaos prevailed at affected branches of the bank and long queues were noticed outside certain branches, especially in the suburbs. In fact, at SBI’s Santacruz (West) branch, a notice saying ‘Please bear with us due to the problems caused by VRS’ could be seen. Serpentine queues were also seen outside the bank’s Madame Cama Road branch, which appears to be one of the most affected. This is because this office is close to SBI’s central office and has seen a lot of VRS-optees.

Counter-staff have been considerably affected after the VRS, and some counters are unmanned. Almost every branch is functioning with one or more closed counters. The emphasis in the current situation is on trying to keep the more important counters functioning. Branch managers are trying their best to keep their respective branches working. At the Madam Cama Road branch, though the bank was collecting cheques, but did not have the staff to send them to the clearing house.

As a result, clearing operations were hit. In some other branches, the draft-counters are not working. It is the same story at almost all branches. According to sources, SBI’s Mumbai-based branches are running out of staff. Medium-sized branches like those in Worli (north), Linking Road (Khar), Malad (West), Churchgate, Vile Parle (East and West), Vakola, Kandivali and Goregaon have been affected more than others. Union sources pointed out that the zonal office has also been affected to some extent: there were about 400 employees in the zonal office, and out of that 55 (25 officers and 30 clerks) have opted for the VRS.

When contacted, SBI’s chairman, Janki Ballabh, said, “VRS optees left by 31st March and we are getting an internal study done by the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) to look at our deployment (staff), especially in the light of the technology upgradations that are being carried out.” Mr Ballabh added that some specific re-deployment has already been done and only a few cases remain. According to him, the bank is trying to set things right before the end of this month.

NIBM will conduct a detailed study and formulate an ideal staffing pattern for the bank’s different branches and operations. SBI staffers seem to believe that the NIBM exercise is an exercise in futility. The study would not help solve the problem. According to them, the problem is already increasing in magnitude and by the time the report comes, a solution may already have been found.

The feeling among SBI staffers seems to be one of anger and resentment. The staff is of the view that the bank should not have opted for such a large scale VRS programme if it did not have a ready solution to problems arising out of the scheme. The staff’s grouse is that the management did not carry out pre-emptive steps. Said an office-bearer of the All-India State Banks Officers Federation (AISBOF): “The VRS has created a piquant situation for the bank. The scheme was not properly planned—the management should have first put in place appropriate technology and then redeployed people, instead of retrenching them. It is a question of putting the cart before the horse.”

Earlier, the bank’s management had assured all branches that if five people opted for VRS, the management would see to it that at least two replacements would arrive. The problem started when the replacements did not appear. There was an agitation by the unions threatening to stop work if a vacant post in a higher cadre was not filled by a person from a lower cadre. The agitation was withdrawn after the management yielded to the unions.