Employees of the State Bank of India’s foreign department (FD) in Kolkata have threatened to launch a non-cooperation movement from March 15 and call a statewide strike in SBI branches on March 28. They have been observing an indefinite hunger strike since March 10 to protest the systematic decimation of the department.

Discontent was brewing among the employees ever since the management had failed to implement the decision of a tripartite meeting held between it and both the officers’ and staff federations on March 26, 2007. But, what made the matter worse was a recent notification from the management that the money market portion of the job, which was still being done in Kolkata, would be discontinued in phases beginning with the removal of the front office operations from March 10, 2008.

The FD, Kolkata, has been one of the most important departments of the bank dealing in all its foreign exchange businesses. Employees said the FD was equipped with a modern, state-of-the-art dealing room built at a cost of nearly Rs 1 crore. In fact, when banking operations was crippled during the Mumbai floods, the FD Kolkata anchored the dealing operations.

In 1997-98, the management decided to shift the forex dealing and cover operations to Mumbai. The reason cited was to integrate it with the bank’s domestic treasury. Following protests, the management and employees reached an agreement on January 12, 2000, to get the work done both from Mumbai and Kolkata on a 50:50 basis.

But the agreement notwithstanding, the entire dealing and cover operations were gradually shifted to Mumbai.

The matter was discussed in the tripartite meeting last year. It was decided that since it was not feasible to carry out operations from two centres, the FD Kolkata would be allocated other jobs.

Accordingly, it was agreed that the FD, Kolkata would be in charge of the proposed inward remittance cell and disaster recovery cell of dealing and cover operations.

“But that did not happen. Meanwhile, the independent stature of the FD was dealt a blow after its clearing code was removed and made an appendage to the Mumbai corporate centre,” said Ashok Dutta, general secretary, SBI Staff Association, Bengal Circle.

“Contrary to what is being projected, this is not a tranfer related issue raised by employees. It is a loss for the state at a time when it is trying to rope in foreign investment. The staff associations of other states have extended their support for us,” said SK Haldar, general secretary, SBI Officers’ Association, Bengal Circle.

The matter will be raised in the West Bengal Assembly, said TMC MLA Sougata Roy.