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Banking on the move

B Srikala

Clerical staff at Andhra Bank are agitated. The reason: At the end of May, 1,000 employees in the staff cadre were transferred at one go. What's more, further transfer orders are expected. For staff members of Andhra Bank, this has been a bitter pill to swallow.

The writing on the wall is the same for other public sector banks across the country. The message to union leaders is clear -- get your comrades ready for a posting outside his/her base. For bank staff, the message is loud enough -- get mobile or else th e exit door is open!

Why the sudden hurry on the part of public sector banks to transfer their employees? Do they want to make their human resources more service-oriented or is there more to it?

Sidharth Shetty, Joint Secretary, Bangalore zone, Andhra Bank feels that the hidden agenda is to prepare the employee for his retired life. A financially well-settled employee would opt for VRS rather than move to an unknown place, says a Syndicate Bank employee. ``The average age of a bank employee is 45 years and he is more or less well settled. His children's education is at a crucial phase and he wouldn't like to be destabilised,'' says U.S.A. Nayak, Deputy General Secretary, Syndicate Bank staff u nion.

Till now, most clerical employees in public sector banks have had it good -- a transfer was formerly a headache reserved for people in the officer cadre. For people at the staff level, transfers were only on request or to a place within commuting distanc e.

However, cost-conscious managements are not obliging any more. For instance, the private sector Vysya Bank decided to transfer over 400 employees this year, something it had not done for over four years. Union sources say though transfers have been withi n zonal regions, it is impossible for an employee to travel from the present base on a daily basis. Similar tales are heard in other banks as well.

The current phase of mass transfers has not left unions too happy. In fact, many are questioning the concept of transfers itself. People like Sidharth of Andhra Bank are confident that the bank does not need mass transfers. How can a region develop surpl us staff literally overnight who can then be transferred to other regions, is the common argument put forth by unions.

But that is the bane most banks suffer from. Most city branches have surplus staff while semi-urban and rural branches find it difficult to operate because of staff shortages. Some banks have countered this problem; for example, a couple of years ago, Sy ndicate Bank closed down 30 rural branches and opened more urban branches.

What do union leaders say on the issue? While Nayak of Syndicate Bank is quick to justify his colleagues' protests against transfers, he adds that they are not against transfers per se. But there should be a scientific way of doing it, he maintains. The biggest complaint by unions is that employees are posted to places lacking in basic facilities. In fact, the common opinion at Syndicate Bank is that it is used as a tool to get rid of people.

Managements, however, are convinced that the time has come for bank employees, at whatever level, to become more mobile. Concurring with this view is D.T. Pai, Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank: ``A bank employee is a national asset and he or she can be transferred anywhere in the country.''

With the advent of technology into banking, it has become necessary for employees to develop new skills in new markets. Public sector banks are in a hurry to offer skills on a par with those offered by the new-generation private sector banks. The glaring difference between the two also shows up in staff strength. Sidharth of Andhra Bank points out that an internal note highlighted a 30 per cent redundancy in staff strength and stated that the present mass transfer is an attempt to correct this.

``The benchmark are the new generation private banks which are growing at a much faster pace,'' says K.J. Ramakrishna Reddy, General Secretary, All India Vysya Bank Employees Union. Sources at Vysya Bank (a 70-year-old institution, one of the oldest priv ate sector banks) say that the management is worried about the threat posed by the new-generation banks.

It's not just old private sector banks but also old public sector banks in a hurry to get into the fast growth zone. ``It's become an ordeal for bank chairmen to talk about their excess staff,'' says an Andhra Bank employee.

This was particularly true in Syndicate Bank. Most employees of the bank complain that their former Chief Managing Director, K.V. Krishnamurthy, used transfer as an effective tool to reduce staff strength. According to insiders, nearly 2,700 officers qui t the bank during the last two years due to transfers. ``Some transfers were out of turn and were used as a weapon to harass officers,'' says a branch manager.

Krishnamurthy however, denies it. ``No management would unnecessarily transfer its staff because it is an expensive affair.'' On an average, the cost is estimated at around Rs. 50,000-1,00,000 per employee on account of various allowances. He argues that transfers are generally linked to performance and that the management is using this as a tool to distribute efficient managers all over the country.

The exceptions are few and far between. Sources in Canara Bank say that it has decided to keep its transfers to the bare minimum for economic reasons. Vijaya Bank and Karnataka Bank too have effected few transfers, barring request transfers.

It has really been Syndicate Bank which has been a pioneer as regards its transfer policy. Till now, it was mandatory for Syndicate Bank staff (both men and women) to go on transfer. The rotational transfer was one year for women and two years for men. B ut in other banks, such a policy was prevalent only at the officer cadre.

Bank managements feel that allowing an employee to stay on in a particular branch helps the staffer develop vested interests. According to sources, quite a number of employees have even managed to establish businesses using the bank infrastructure. ``Nat urally, in such cases, there will be resistance to transfer,'' says a senior bank official.

On the other hand, the general complaint from unions is that the management is biased in its transfer policy, especially in the officer cadre. ``There are enough officers who have remained in cities for two decades without a single rural posting,'' says G.A. Kinhal, a branch manager at Syndicate Bank. According to him, even when the posting is for a period of five years, an officer is transferred to a new location within one year. ``You can imagine the inconvenience caused to his family when it comes to education of his children,'' says Kinhal.

In fact, the issue of family responsibility is the biggest weapon used by the unions, particularly in the staff cadre. The statistics offered by union members estimate the age of the average bank employee in India at 45; most of them have children in the age group of 12-15.

The law has not been of much help either; the only reference in this category has been the Shastri Award of 1952. The report says bank employees can be transferred after one year to meet the administrative exigencies of the organisation within each langu age zone. Employees complain that this is being misused by people at the management level. For instance, in the North Zone the language is the same across a wide stretch but this is of no help. ``When clerical staff are transferred, it should be within c ommutable distance,'' argues Nayak. Even the recent bipartite agreement signed between the bank unions and the management states that transfer policies should be left to the discretion of individual bank managements.

According to sources in the banking industry, Syndicate Bank's Krishnamurthy wanted the transfer policy to be the prerogative of the management. Krishnamurthy confirmed this but added that the entire process should be transparent and scientific. An emplo yee must be aware of this policy right at the entry level, he said.

This problem is caused in part by the recruitment policy adopted by the bank. State Bank of India and its associate banks have a clear policy of regional recruitment. Even when an employee is transferred, it is within that circle. On the other hand, recr uitment for other public sector banks is done by the Banking Service Recruitment Board (BSRB) at the national level. Nayak of Syndicate Bank feels that recruitment should be done on a region-wise basis but this system has a hitch. Sources in the industry point out that it was a common practice in the past to declare fictitious addresses at the time of recruitment to gain an entry into the bank. ``These employees served their initial years outside their base and went back to their home towns on request t ransfers. They are now in no mood to be displaced,'' says a source.

Even if such an employee gets an unwanted transfer, he pulls

every known string to cancel the transfer order. ``During every transfer time, I age by five years,'' says Nayak ruefully!

But this time round, the bank managements have made it clear to the unions that no transfer will be cancelled. ``Our management has asked us not to entertain any request except the genuine ones,'' says Ramakrishna Reddy of the Vysya Bank union. Syndicate Bank boss Pai too concurs. The unions too seem to be getting the message, partly because they themselves are finding it difficult to be heard. Not only do banks have more than one union but employees are also drifting away from unions due to promotions and transfers. ``Today, unionism itself is on the downswing,'' admits a union leader.

``The present generation is not passionate about an organisation. An employee is willing to quit (if he can afford to) when he doesn't like the transferred place,'' says Reddy of Vysya Bank. Would bank chairmen love to hear that?