Except for Dena Bank, no other PSB has an employee representative director on their board-At least 11 banks have such positions vacant for over one year now

All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) on Sunday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention.

The letter written by the AIBEA secretary general also says that at least three representations to the finance minister over the past two years have failed to generate any result despite assurances.

It is a matter of concern that the posts of workman and officer directors in the banks that have fallen vacant from 2014, 2015 and 2016 still remain vacant with the result that there is no representation on the Boards of all the banks representing the employees and officers… Since our efforts with the finance ministry and also the finance minister could not yield any result, we are constrained to address this direct communication to you seeking your personal attention and positive intervention,” said the letter written by C H Venkatachalam, secretary general, AIBEA, to the Prime Minister.

Data sourced from AIBEA show that except for Dena Bank, no other PSB has an employee representative director on their board. While the position of employee director has been lying vacant in Union Bank of India since April 2014, that in Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank have been vacant since October 2014 and March 2016, respectively.

At least 11 banks have such positions vacant for over one year now. Venkatachalam said in the letter that the Bank Nationalisation Act/Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act provides for appointment of a workman employee representative and an officer employee representative as directors on the Boards of all the PSBs.

According to the letter, the employees’ unions have already submitted the panel of names for appointments and the bank managements have also sent in their recommendations. “We learn that all other formalities have also been completed but yet the appointments are withheld by the government… We met the finance minister on three occasions with our representation to expedite the appointments who assured that the matter is under process and would be expedited but still nothing has happened so far for the past two years,” the letter said.