SBI operation: About 2,10,000 employees strike work

Mumbai, Apr 3: About 2,10,000 employees from 9,000 branches across the country, including officers of the State Bank of India, struck work today as part of the indefinite strike called by the all-India State Bank Officers' Federation demanding their long-pendings and revision of pension scheme.

''The stir has affected banking transactions at SBI's 9,022 odd branches across the country,'' All-India State Bank Officers' Federation general secretary Shantaraju said.

He said that the strike was enforced on the employees because of the lethargy of the management to address the long-pending issue of pension scheme which has not been revised since the last fourteen years.

While the pension scheme was revised and updated in the case of the seven associate banks of SBI, it was not revised for the employees of SBI inspite of several representations made to the management, Mr Shantaraju said.

According to him, the federation had a meeting with the SBI Chairman last week where it was informed that the management had recommended a 50 per cent revision of the pension scheme, thereby bringing it at par with the industry.

Currently, an official of SBI having a monthly salary above Rs 25,000 gets a pension of maximum Rs 4,250 only, based on the salary-scale of 1992, while the average industry payout to an employee is Rs 18,000 per month, said Mr Shantaraju.

Similarly, in the case of family pension, an employee of SBI gets an amount of Rs 1,000 only as against the industry average payment of Rs 4,800.

In fact, the largest shareholder of SBI, the Reserve Bank of India has given its consent to the revision of the pension scheme.

However, the finance ministry is yet to approve the scheme, Mr Shantaraju added.

UNI

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