Post-CVC Directive, Public Sector Bank Staff Face Mass Transfers

In response to the surprise directive from the Central Vigilance Commission to transfer bank officers in the backdrop of the Punjab National Bank fraud, public sector banks have resorted to mass transfers of their clerical staff, as well as senior officials posted at ‘sensitive’ posts..

Sources confirmed that the headquarters of the public sector banks have asked their respective zonal offices to implement the CVC directive seeking transfer of all clerical staff who have completed five years as on December 31, 2017, with immediate effect. The directive also applied to the officers posted at ‘sensitive’ posts who have completed a three-year tenure.

“There is so much of overreaction after the PNB fraud, and bank managements are under pressure to transfer enmasse employees and officers based on the cut-off date of December 31, 2017. “The transfers are unwarranted. Because of the unilateral shift in cut-off date, there appears to be more number of staff not transferred. But in any case the same would be covered as on March 31, 2018, in the ensuing process, which is regularly undertaken by every bank,” said CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA.

On Wednesday, AIBEA wrote to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, seeking his intervention to stop the mass transfers.

“If the banks feel that mass transfers of employees and officers at this crucial stage of the banking sector is the only solution and remedy for the PNB fraud, they are only inviting industrial disputes and conflicts,” the association wrote.