By IANS,
Kolkata : Officers of the State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest bank, Thursday deferred their nationwide strike slated for Friday following assurances from the management that their grievances would be taken up soon.
State Bank of India Officers’ Association (Bengal Circle) general secretary S.K. Haldar told IANS: “The management has discussed few issues with us and promised to take up the rest of our demands soon. We have been assured that our problems will be looked into seriously”.
The decision to postpone the strike, called in protest against various management policies and demanding resolution of pending issues, was taken following parleys between the bank’s apex officers’ body, All India SBI Officers Federation, and the management in Mumbai.
The bank management has agreed to recruit adequate number of officers within next month and develop proper infrastructure in the branches opened recently, Haldar said.
“The unilateral decisions regarding implementations of circle re-design was discussed with the federation. On our demand that the officers’ pension scheme be improved, the management said it will discuss the issue with the government,” he said.
The charter of demands included scrapping the unilateral alteration of service conditions of officers, disproportionate penalties and outsourcing of permanent and perennial nature of jobs, besides reimbursement of additional rent to officers staying in their own houses.
SBI has 10,000 branches all over India.