UCO employees launch platform for turnaround

In the face of threats of merger and salary cuts, employees and officers of UCO Bank have joined hands and launched a platform — United Forum of UCO Bank Unions — aimed at a speedier turnaround of the bank. The mandate of the newly-formed organisation is to motivate employees to work overtime and on holidays, holding credit camps for retail loans, retaining customers, and intensifying the recovery of non-performing assets (NPAs) through door-to-door campaigns, said Partha Chanda, secretary of the All India UCO Bank Employees’ Federation.

UCO Bank’s staff strength is about 25,000. A few months ago, a zonal head of UCO Bank had recommended suspending salaries of employees in 11 branches to punish them for non-performance. The proposal was shot down by the management, but created panic among employees.

In 1997, when UCO Bank was passing through a similar financial crisis, its employees, both non-officers and officers, had extended their working hours to hasten the bank’s revival.

UCO Bank is currently under prompt corrective action by the Reserve Bank of India as its NPAs have remained consistently high. Earlier, the Centre had written to 10 banks, UCO Bank being one of them, asking them to make a revival road map for availing of government

funds. The government’s letter also said that some staff benefits could be restructured on a temporary basis. However, on account of stiff opposition from the unions, the clause of salary cut was not included in UCO Bank’s turnaround plan.

The present turnaround plan includes mergers of unviable branches, focus on CASA (current account, savings account) mobilisation, restrictions in giving loans to corporate entities, and depending on sectors like agriculture, retail, and micro, small and medium enterprises for loan growth, according to R K Takkar, managing director and chief executive officer, UCO Bank.

“The employees feel demotivated as there are frequent reports of merger on account of the critical financial state of the bank. To assuage the fears of the employees, and motivate them, the officers and employees have come together to form a platform to intensify turnaround plans,” said Chanda.

UCO Bank had reported a 62 per cent increase in net loss to ~6.23 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2017, against a net loss of about ~3.85 billion in the corresponding period of the last financial year.

The bank’s NPAs rose to 19.7 per cent of gross advances as of September 2017, up from 16.51 per cent a year ago. Net NPAs, too, increased to 9.98 per cent during the second quarter, up from 8.83 per cent a year ago.