All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam speaks during the diamond jubilee celebrations of All India Karnataka Bank Employees Association in Mangaluru on Sunday.
Credit: DH Photo/Fakruddin H
All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam demanded the central government to fill over 1 lakh vacancies in banks across the country.
About 75,000 to 80,000 posts are lying vacant in nationalised banks and the remaining are vacancies in private banks, he told mediapersons.
“We demand adequate recruitment of staff in Banks. To serve the people efficiently, the banks should have adequate staff. But in the last few years, banks have not recruited an adequate number of employees. Recruitment of staff has slowed down and recruitment of subordinate employees has been stopped totally. The vacancies are affecting the effective and satisfactory customer service in the banks,” he said.
“Instead of filling up these vacancies, the Banks are trying to outsource these permanent jobs on temporary and contract basis. We strongly oppose the same. AIBEA has decided to launch a countrywide agitation including strikes to demand adequate recruitment in the banks to fill up all the vacancies,” he said.
Bank service charges, which were previously free, have now increased significantly, burdening the poor. Corporate loan recoveries have decreased, reducing bank revenues. Consequently, service charges have been raised.
He urged the banks to recover bad loans - and stop concessions to loan defaulters. Bad loans/Non-performing assets in the Banks have increased over the years. The bulk of the defaulted loans are dues from the big private corporate companies. Instead of taking stern action against the defaulters to recover the loans, huge concessions are being given to them. Huge amounts of loans given to the corporate companies are being written off. While for the ordinary people who take small amounts of loans from the banks, coercive methods are adopted to recover the loans, the big defaulters who are private companies are dealt with leniently, he alleged.
“Banks are incurring losses due to such loan write-offs. We oppose these concessions to the big loan defaulters. The government should publish the list of such loan defaulters. Action should be taken on these defaulters to recover the loans. Four lakh crore corporate loans are pending to be paid.
During the 60th anniversary of the All India Karnataka Bank Employees Association, Venkatachalam praised the union for ensuring benefits to the bank employees all these years and how it played an important role in the business and performance of the banks.
On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the union honoured former general secretary P R Karanth who had served as the general secretary for 50 years.