Banks employees for nationwide agitation

Shillong, May 04: The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has threatened to take up a national campaign against outsourcing and contract employment in the financial sector.

''The major challenge before the financial sector in our country is the large scale contract employment and the outsourcing contemplated by the institutions in banking and insurance,'' UFBU national convener Shantha Raju told newsmen here last night.

His remarks came ahead of the executive committee meeting of the All India State Bank Officers' Federation (AISBOF) here today.

''The RBI has issued detailed guidelines to the commercial banks in regard to outsourcing some of the routine functions of banks such as collection of deposits, sanction of loans, recovery, follow-up, documentation etc., which we strongly oppose,'' he said.

Lashing out at the central government for the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) bid to outsource certain bank functions, Mr Raju said the bank unions would put up stiff resistance to prevent that.

The unions would air its protest on the issue with a 'national anti outsourcing day' on May 16. The unions of the RBI, banking, insurance and mutual fund in both public and private sectors would observe the protest day, said Mr Raju, who is also the general secretary of All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC).

''We demand immediate withdrawal of all the works that have already been outsourced. Besides, the contractual labourers should be regularised,'' said Mr Raju.

UNI