BoR employees to protest bank's merger -Governance Now

BoR employees to protest bank's merger

Token strike against merger planned on June 4 and 5

Sarthak Ray | May 27, 2010

Employees of troubled private sector lender, Bank of Rajasthan, which is set to be taken over by banking biggie ICICI Bank, today threatened to go on a token strike on June 4 and 5 to protest the merger.

Three major employee unions of BoR--All India Bank of Rajasthan Employees Federation, All India Bank of Rajasthan Officers' Association and Akhil Bhartiya Bank of Rajasthan Karmchari Sangh--have called the strike demanding the immediate termination of the ICICI-BoR merger proposal.

"We have decided to strike work on June 4 and 5. If the authorities do not heed to our demand, we will again go on a three-day strike beginning 17th June. All branches of BoR and over 4,000 employees will participate in the strike," AIBOREF, president, Dharmendra Rao told PTI over phone.

Employees fear that the merger would result in job losses as the work culture of both banks are 'extremely' different. This would also destroy the identity of one of the oldest private sector banks in the country, they said.

"The work culture of both banks are extremely different and it will be difficult for our staff, who are used to the culture of BoR for decades, to integrate with ICICI Bank. There is no guarantee that our jobs will be protected," Rao said.

Post merger, the ICICI Bank management will term various HR policies and related settlement issues between BoR employees and management as non-binding, negatively impacting employees' interests, Rao said.

"Unions have number of internal settlements with its management on various HR policies, which guarantees the job security and protection from the management?s victimisation on common employees...which all shall be termed as 'no-binding' upon the management of ICICI Bank," Rao said.

The unions have also written to Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and Reserve Bank of India demanding their intervention in the matter and has scheduled a meeting with Regional Labour Commissioner to discuss the matter.

On May 23, ICICI Bank had announced the merger of Bank of Rajasthan with it through share-swap in a non-cash deal that values the BoR at about Rs 3,000 crore.

The transaction would be done by way of offering 25 shares of ICICI for every 118 shares of BoR.

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