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StanChart to recast and resize itself despite union pressure

Anurag Joshi in Bombay

Standard Chartered Bank will go ahead with plans of restructuring its manpower and branch network in spite of a fierce agitation launched by bank unions against the move.

StanChart's chief executive officer Martin Fish said that the bank is following the industry trend of streamlining its organisational structure in order to bring greater efficiency in its operations.

The bank is closing down the Amritsar, Goa and Calicut branches and ceasing operations at the Kochi branch.

''We are shutting branches economically unviable as the customer base in these places is small,'' Fish said. The bank has, meanwhile, opened a branch in Pune and hopes to start branches in other big towns of the country.

The three branches to be shut down have a staff strength of 80. The total number of employees in StanChart branches is 2,700. As part of its manpower restructuring, the bank has come out with an employee separation package or ESP entailing a golden handshake to the surplus staff at a reasonable compensation.

''We have a surplus of 900 employees. A total of 800 of them have applied for the ESP. The compensation package to these employees is Rs 1.5 billion,'' Fish informed, adding that the amount being offered to the employees is ''competitive'' by market standards.

The unions led by the All-India Bank Officers' Association and the Maharashtra State Bank Employees Federation have launched an agitation against the restructuring exercise of StanChart.

The AIBOA secretary S D Dhopeshwarkar said that the union's members are boycotting the clearing of StanChart's instruments and the bank's activities in the foreign exchange and money markets. Asked about the inconvenience the move would cause to the general public and business, he said that his union had no alternative but to ''retaliate''.

He said that the union plans further agitation against the multinational banks. Fish shrugged off any effect of the union's actions on StanChart's business. He said that he was in touch with the Reserve Bank of India, which fully understood the bank's position.

The unions allege that bank is indulging in unfair labour practices by forcing young employees to leave the banks through the ESP scheme. They also accuse the bank of engaging contract labour for permanent jobs. The bank's ESP scheme closes on March 26.

According to Fish, most employees who are opting for it accept the bank's policies and there is no discontent in the rank and file.

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