As the general public is not with the unions, there is no way they can stop privatisation of banks
Banking operations, including cheque clearances across the country, got affected as bankers under the aegis of the United Forum of Bank Unions have gone on a nationwide strike to protest against the proposed privatisation of two government banks. The United Forum of Bank Unions which is an umbrella body of nine unions has given the strike call for December 16 and 17. For the same demand they have abstained from work on March 15 and 16 also. Earlier as part of budget announcement, the Finance Minister had informed that two unnamed public sector banks will be privatized. Bank workers going on strike is not a new phenomenon, but over the years the strength of the unions to bargain ‘based on their right to strike work’ has depleted. It is well settled under different labour laws that employees have a right to strike work to highlight their demands as any management can have the right of lock-out or lay off, all subject to conditions. Long time ago, we had only public sector banks and some private sector old generation banks and the workers of these banks were all well organized under communist unions. The workers had different settlements that were reached under Industrial Disputes Act and there was not much scope for the management to deviate from any of these. There used to be a system of ‘collective bargaining’, which in a lighter vein used to mean that the ‘management will bargain’ but ultimately ‘unions will collect’. However, in 1990s, new private banks, like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank etc, had come into existence. These banks have adopted technology for providing service and the role of labour unions has been curtailed by keeping all the staff under officer cadre. Over the years, these banks have acquired sizeable business also. As the employees of new private sector banks are not under these unions, these private banks function without any disruption. Even in public sector banks, when customers are having facility of online banking, the employees’ strike does not disrupt transactions. Alternate channels like internet banking, mobile banking, ATM etc ensure that customer service is not affected. The only major service which is affected is clearing house function where cheques are cleared under the Cheque Truncation System administered by Reserve Bank of India. Though most of the employees obey the command of the unions and strike work, they are not happy about it. Under the principle of no-work-no-pay, they forego the wages of the days of strike. Moreover, when they resume the work next day, there will be added pressure of work without any compensation. When the issue involved is other than service conditions, they feel that they are unnecessarily dragged into the issue which is political. And many of them are not convinced with the ideology of the unions also. Everyone knows that the government will carry on their agenda as they have got the mandate of the people. With the majority they have in both the houses of parliament, any amendment to Acts required will be carried out. As the unions are totally opposing the move of the government, they lose the opportunity of bargaining for the welfare of their employees after privatization. If the unions are tactful, instead of blindly opposing the privatisastion, they can bargain for the welfare of the employees in those banks and cooperate with the government. In any case the government will carry out its agenda. When the general public is also not with the unions, there is no way that they can stop privatization of banks. The strike is just tokenism.
(The writer is a retired banker. The views expressed are personal.)