No representation of staff on bank board

For more than a year, the government has not appointed a workman employee representative and an officer employee representative as directors on the boards of all the public-sector banks (PSBs). According to information received by FPJ, the appointments are withheld by the government. Confirming this, AIBEA, general secretary, CH Venkatachalam said, “We had written a letter to the Finance ministry and also contacted the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). We were informed by the ministry that it has sent the names to PMO and is awaiting approval.” For the past two years and more, the posts of employee representative directors and officer representative directors are not being filled up by the government.

According to the Bank Nationalisation Act and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act which govern PSBs, besides appointment of various members of the Board of Directors for efficient administration of the bank, there should be workman employee representative and an officer employee representative as directors on the boards as well. “These appointments in the banks have been taking place for last four decades. This undermines transparency of the banks' working and there is no one who would criticise wrong moves made by the board or government,” said Devidas Tuljapurkar, joint secretary, AIBEA.

While govt has its eyes fixed on merger and consolidation of public sector banks, it is ignoring fair representation of employees on bank boards, bank union said