-Will It Suit Bank Employees? If not -
-Will Union leaders try to nip in the bud?
Bitter truth is that even now there are more than fifty percent of branches which are manned by hardly two or three persons and the employees working there are unable to get sanction for leave and unable to even meet their family members .
Bank officers come to office early in the morning and go back to home late in night . Neither spouse nor children find any interest in talking to such tired family head.
Many employees working in banks have to sit late and perform on Sundays and holidays to complete their day -to- day work .This is because of huge work load to be completed on the same day and due to the fact that nature of work is such which cannot be kept pending for following day.
Future of bank employees therefore does not lie in respectable wage revision but in respectful living and comfortable family life. If family is unhappy , the employee cannot perform with pleasure in bank and the quality of work done will invariably be below the mark.
Is bank management bent upon earning profit only by exploitation of employees and only by saving staff cost?
Banks resort to opening one-man branches--- Times of India
Aparna Ramalingam, TNN | Apr 4, 2013, 01.26AM IST
For most the mental image of an HDFC Bank branch is that of a high street air-conditioned office, bustling with customers. But the dozens of one or two-man branches the bank has been recently opening in distant outposts are a far cry from this popular perception.
Take its two-man branch in Periyakulam, a small town in Tamil Nadu nestling at the foothills of the Western Ghats bordering Kerala or its similar micro branches in Ananthathandavapuram and Kalluthoti junction. With RBI linking opening of new branches to opening one in an unbanked area banks have no choice but to go to far out places. Although now a compulsion, lenders are making a business proposition of it by leveraging technology to reach the last unbanked mile and offer most of their products with minimal additional costs. HDFC is not the only one expanding its network through the one-two man branch route. The city headquartered Indian Bank has 1,523 one man bank branches in areas with a population of 2,000 to 5,000. In the case of HDFC, the bank has over 200 such branches in far flung areas.
For banks which are constantly looking to raise funds through the low cost route, such one man branches can help achieve the right product mix. "Deposits would be one of our major offerings. In addition, we are looking to offer attractive two wheeler and crop loan products at these branches," Dhiraj Relli, branch banking head, south of HDFC Bank said. In the case of HDFC Bank, the CASA ratio as of December end stood at 45.4%. "Such branches tend to be CASA (current account savings account) heavy with the advances skewed towards agriculture," TM Bhasin, chairman and managing director, Indian Bank said. As at the end of the third quarter of FY 13, Indian Bank's CASA share to total deposits stood at 30%.
Technology apart, costs of operations are another determining factor in many banks opting for single, dual or triple man branches. As per estimates, nearly one-third of a branch cost is salaries with rentals, electricity and other expenses accounting for the remainder. Take the case of Indian Bank. The cost (salaries and rental) of operating a full fledged branch (having six officers and area ranging from 700 square feet to 1,000 square feet) works out around Rs 27 lakh annually. In comparison, the cost of operating a single man branch in the same area works out to Rs three lakh annually for the bank.
As part of the financial inclusion agenda, RBI had provided a roadmap for banking services covering villages in a structured way. In the first way, villages with population over 2,000 was targeted. The focus has now shifted to villages with population of less than 2,000.
Leaders will bury their heads inside the sand (in the files??) like ostriches ??? During wage negotiations they will get their share. Coming out they will shout "victory is ours!!!!"
ReplyDeleteWe fools will echo it. What else we can do ??