Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (KD/NR) 

Mangalore, Jul 30: All-India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) urged the government to settle the issue of giving one more option for pension to the bank employees here, on Sunday July 29. 

Addressing media persons the AIBOC joint general secretary T R Bhat said that although the government had given an assurance to solve the issue by June 30, nothing has materialized so far, and since the existing wage settlement of bank employees will expire in November, salary revision must take care of the market reality. 

He further stated that the starting salary of a junior officer at an entry level in banks is much lower than the starting salary of BPO employee. Discrimination in salary will take away the talent from the banking sector he averred.

Bhat also urged for regulation in the working hours for the bank officers and said that the work life balance has been affected because of the late sitting and working on holidays. According to him there is an urgent need for HR management in the banking sector, hence the HR policy must be reviewed accordingly.

In public sector banks, training and post training placement, rotation, career map, plan for skill developments, succession plan needs to be focused. By 2015 there will be a serious manpower crisis, as those who were recruited between 1977 and 1986 will be retiring causing serious vacuum. Recruitment to the banks has come down after 1980s and 1990s, Bhat informed.

Bhat also feared that banking sector will be opened for foreign banks to have their wholly owned subsidiaries in 2009. Foreign banks can take over the private sector banks also with small capital, however, the federation was against such takeovers, he added. He suggested that public sector banks should also be encouraged to take over older generation banks.