DEFEND PSU BANKS AND DEFEAT PRIVATISATION. UPDATE PENSION OF OLD SETTLEMENT RETIREES IMMEDIATELY

DEFEND PSU BANKS AND DEFEAT PRIVATISATION. UPDATE PENSION OF OLD SETTLEMENT RETIREES IMMEDIATELY ...

  (received from Mr Parasuraman K R ) 

[8:47 AM, 7/19/2021] +91 90745 76131: Dear Friends,

Today 19/07/2021 is the 52nd anniversary of bank nationalisation.This day is very significant especially in the context of the present Government is engaged in handing over the huge public sector assets built over 52 years to private corporate management groups. In other words, reversal or denationalisation and go back to the olden days of class banking and hire and fire in the name of creating efficiency and finding resources to fund govt programs.

Any government would have its prioritise and policies and as bank retirees it is our duty and responsibility to fully protect our interest and all benefits statutorily  guaranteed  under the Defined Pension scheme including pension updation with 100% DA neutralisation for pre-Nov 2002 retirees and periodical revision is got implemented and continued as a prelude to any such move. We have seen that despite strong protest by the employees/officers unions backed by the retirees associations the govt coolly went ahead in implementing its bank merger policy in April 2020, even at the peak of Covid 19 pandemic.This only shows the determination of the government to go ahead with its policies confronting all objections and obstructions.

Any move against bank privatisation would succeed only if we could garner the full support of the general public.The recent classic example is the withdrawal of the FRDI bill brought as part of banking reforms by the govt due to strong protest against bail-in clause of the bill by the general public threatening to eat away their hard earned savings. Resistance by employee unions alone would have little or no impact to stop privatisation especially when the govt has brute majority in Parliament. There should be uproar against this ill conceived move both inside the Parliament and nation wide outside to stall such moves.

Many of us are products of nationalisation and could get a dream banking job only becoz banks were in the public sector. But some of us would have experienced the hardships of the pre-nationalisation era when banks were owned and operated by Tata, Birla and business communities like Gujarathis, marathis, konkanies and chettiars.They catered to the interest of their community or class not only in banking business but also in staff recruitment

The bank nationalisation brought a major change in banking policy and a shift from class banking to mass banking and from community-based recruitment to qualification-based one and many of us got an opportunity to do banking services which was considered as a prestigious job at that time. We owe a lot to the pre-nationalization era employees who struggled and fought for bank nationalisation. The unions who are now fighting against privatisation have unfortunately failed to recognise the sacrifice of the old retirees and their struggle for bank nationalisation.

Now it is the major duty of the unions to address the issues of the old bank retirees  and update their pension and other benefits before the government goes ahead with its unhindered move of bank privatisation. The govt had promised to "harmonise": the benefits of banks before merger with all better benefits wherever given to be offered to employees and retirees of merged entities. But in reality there is total chaos and banks have failed to implement the merger terms under staff welfare measures as well as BPS agreed norms. The FP updation agreed and minuted under 11th BPS on 11/11/2020 is still hanging on fire. The woes of retirees continues in the matter of 10th n 11th BPS stagnation increment implementation.

If this is the case we can just imagine how frightful it would be if the pension fund is handed over to the banks proposed to be privatised and managed by them with no guarantee of getting monthly pension leave alone any improvements. So now it is the primary duty of the Unions if they fail to stop privatisation, god-forbidden, to atleast address the issue of this grave future problem and take immediate steps for pension updation with statutory protection and implementation without dragging the issue to 12th BPS as by that time there wont be much banks left in public sector if we go by the words of the Finance Secretary Mr. T V Somanathan stating that the govt would eventually  privatise most of the public sector banks and added that the govt policy is to maintain only minimum presence in banking sector. We request the Unions to read the signals and involve themselves to protect the interest of the retirees demanding immediate updation of pension and ensure statutory protection of all pensionary benefits before the govt hands over the PSU banks to the corporate management groups.

DEFEND PSU BANKS AND DEFEAT PRIVATISATION. UPDATE PENSION OF OLD SETTLEMENT RETIREES IMMEDIATELY