CVC Directive On Transfer Of Bank Staff Will Affect Year-end Operations: Unions

Bank unions have said that the Chief Vigilance Commission’s direction to immediately transfer officers and employees in public sector banks (PSBs) in the wake of the Punjab National Bank scam will affect their functions during the financial year-end.

They have sought the authorities concerned to defer the direction till the fiscal year-end.

The unions said that the CVC has directed banks to transfer all employees and officers immediately if they have remained in a particular place or position for more than five years and three years respectively, as on December 31 2017.

In a letter to the CVC, Manimaran GV, General Secretary of the All-India Nationalised Banks’ Officers’ Federation (AINBOF), said that this direction will affect the functioning of the banks during the financial year-end, and requested the Commission to defer the direction till March 31. Stating that the promotion and transfer process generally commences after the financial year is over and ends before the first quarter (June) in almost all the PSBs, he said, effecting transfers now and then undertaking the process immediately in another two months in a full-fledged manner will hamper the functioning of the banks for three-four months.

This will result in heavy workload and increased costs at a time when banks are already facing a host of problems, he said.

The transfer of experienced officers in crucial areas such as treasury operations, risk management, accounting and credit management at this time of the year would have a major impact, he said.

Manimaran told BusinessLine that nearly 70 per cent of officers in the banking industry will be affected by this.

“The CVC’s direction to transfer the officers and employees immediately, as if we were following faulty policies so far, has totally demoralised the lakhs of committed officers. This, we apprehend, may cause more damage to the banks,” he said.

AIBEA

Meanwhile, in a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, the General Secretary of All-India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), CH Venkatachalam, said that taking the cut-off date of December 31, 2017, and effecting such transfers on a mass scale would destabilise the functioning of the bank branches in a big way, especially when employees and officers in the banks are covered by memorandum of understanding to turn around the banks and are engaged in, among other things, the recovery of loans.