Sunday, May 5, 2013

Future of Agriculture Officers in Banks

More or less , in all banks Rural Development Officers are treated by banks in whimsical way. sometimes they are treated as Generalist and sometimes specialist.It all depends of whims of top bosses of the bank. Similar is the position of credit officers who are treated as specialist when bank need officers to be recruited from campus and treated as Generalist when they need to promote existing generalists .There is no uniformity and generalist and specialists all are confused and divided. 

 Officers who are getting quick promotion become Pro-management and those who are not called for or who are rejected in the process become anti-management. 

 In such situation , it is the need of time that officers forget their temporary gain or loss and insist for uniformity and transparency in all promotion processes and demand time bound promotion strictly based on seniority. Entire promotion process is simply bakwas, dramewazi and a fraud played by top executives. 

 Despite all good performance , officers are rejected in Interview and on the contrary an officer with bad track record is promoted . As such bank officer community has to be united and insist for the same promotion policy which is seniority based which was in place in seventies and eighties in almost all banks.

 Bank has been given all freedom by RBI and MOF on HR polices in 1991 and since then corruption has gone up and up , they cheated officers through campus hiring  and through so called merit oriented promotion process.There are officers who have got no promotion even in one or two decades from scale I to scale II or from scale II to scale III whereas some officers recruited from campus or directly from market are getting chances to become scale IV even in a time span of 4 to 5 years.And similar is the fate of marketing officers, Hindi officers, Law officers, technical officers,credit officers and so on.

 This reign of injustice has to be stopped forthwith.

 Following the link of a letter written by Officers Association of Allahabad Bank which is eye opener for many banks.

 https://attachment.fbsbx.com/file_download.php?id=455763817844480&eid=ASsHZDSyGB2uYNmZs-zPgsMWz8zrG6flsAS1o1HjAtorxSkm_F0x7jZplnitpLziXtg&inline=1&ext=1367804903&hash=ASubLGe_VU7oLjvP

      To,
      Honorable C & MD
      Allahabad Bank

      Respected Madam,


      Career Path for A.F.O. (Regarding Previous and Current year Promotion Policy)

       With due respect, first of all I am sorry to send this letter directly to you without any union representative or through any other proper channel because our unions are keeping mum on captioned issue. In this connection, below are some points which require your kind attention:-

      1 – Previous year promotion policy did not allow any AFO to participate on the plea by Management that Bank does not require any Manager (Agriculture) and thus, AFOs were excluded straightly from being promoted. As a result, P.O. or Mainstream Officers, who joined on same date with AFOs i.e 20-Jul-2009 were promoted to Scale 2 whereas AFOs of above batch are working as Scale 1 officers till date. Even in specialist cadre IT officers from same batch were given a chance to participate in the process and AFOs were not.

      2 – After the promotion process was over, unions drafted a document called ‘Career Path of AFOs’ and Management stated that since there was no eligible AFO from 2008 batch, any AFO from 2009 batch cannot be provided with relaxation this year. However at that time, Management stated that in next year, when AFOs of 2009 batch will be eligible, relaxation will be provided to AFOs from 2010 batch on par with P.O. and both batches will be promoted to scale 2.

      3 – This year, the management started promotion process first for mainstream officers, who joined up to April 2011 again. Union leaders are telling that we are taking the issue of AFOs in specialist cadre to corporate level but till now, they have not raised this issue again (may be like last year they will raise the issue after completion of promotion process).

      4 – Till now, all AFOs are being kept in dark about their future in bank. Fear has gripped all AFO officers to work as Scale 1 officer for 6 years when the Probationary Officers, who are joining on same date or later in all batches, will be promoted to Scale 3 when compared to AFOs joining in same Batch year. Even the clerical cadre, who joined with or later then AFOs will become their senior.

      5 – Most of AFOs joined bank through written test and interview and NOT from campus recruitment. They are doing all the routine operation jobs in their home branch as well as other branches (like Mainstream Officers) in addition to Priority Sector Credit mobilization, appraisal and follow-up.

      6 – This injustice is being metted out only to Agriculture Field Officers of Allahabad Bank. In other public sector banks such as PNB, Bank of Baroda, UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Oriental Bank of Commerce, etc. officers working as Agriculture Officers are being promoted to Scale 2 on par with their mainstream colleagues in a time-bound manner and through a  well-defined promotion process.

      7 – We AFOs are well aware of the fact that, the Board is bound to follow unilateral guidelines issued by Ministry of Finance last year, which clearly state that, all specialist officers should remain in specialist cadre for 5 years from their date of joining or promotion. But why our beloved institution thinks that specialist officers in certain cadres should work as Scale 1 officer for 5-6 years. It can follow the promotion policy of other banks including Bank of Maharashtra, where Agriculture Officers are being promoted on par with their mainstream officers without any discrimination.

      Respected Madam, we AFOs are now forced to think that there may be some biased persons in management who don’t want AFOs to be considered for promotion. In such case, you are our last hope remaining. It feels very painful and humiliating to work in junior cadre only within 3 years of joining the bank. We are looking towards you for justice in this condition. Also we promise to follow your fair decision in this regard and not to make any action or nuisance, which tarnish the image of Bank in front of outside world.

      Therefore we request you to include AFOs from 2009 and 2010 batch in the ongoing promotion process with the same eligibility criteria as applicable to the Mainstream Officers when circular regarding promotion for Specialist Officers will be out along with a transparent & an unbiased selection process. Your one direction may end the injustice metted out on AFO cadre willfully from past one year.

                                     This is for your kind perusal and doing the needful, please                                                                                                  
      Cc:                                                                                                                Yours faithfully
      • Sri Tilak Chawla, Hon’ble ED                                                                      
      • Sri Arun Tiwari , Hon’ble ED                                                          A.F.O. Name
      • The GM, HR & PA                                                                             P.F. No.
      Encl: Promotion policy of PNB and BOB AS ATTACHEMENTS
               Branch (Branch Code)




*
Bank of India
Head Office
Human Resources Department,
Recruitment & Promotion Division.
Branch Circular No.

Sub: Human Resources / 2013-14/


Sub-subject: OSR/



Ref : HO:HR:PROM:KMU:2013-14/01
Date:  19.04.2013




ADVANCE - COPY

CIRCULAR TO ALL BRANCHES / OFFICES





Promotion Policy in terms of Regulation 17
of the Bank of India Officers’ Service Regulations, 1979 - Modifications


The Board of Directors of our Bank had approved and adopted a new Promotion Policy for Officer employees (General Banking Officers & Specialist Officers) of the Bank in terms of Regulation 17 of the Bank of India Officers’ Service Regulations, 1979 and the same was circulated vide our Branch Circular No. 105/183 dated 15.02.2012.  Certain Terms of the Policy were modified later in view of new guidelines received from Ministry of Finance, Government of India and the same was circulated vide Branch Circular No. 106/26 dated 03.05.2012

Now, some fresh/new guidelines regarding Promotion in Public Sector Banks have been received from Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The guidelines were placed to the Board of Directors of the Bank and after consideration of the same; Board has accorded approval for adopting the following guidelines:

Modifications approved in Promotion Policy dated 15.02.2012:
Clause No.
Existing
Revised
Remarks
5.3
Eligibility in terms of length of service, percentage of marks in APA etc
NIL
New Clause:
Bank with prior approval of the Board, can relax the requirement of marks in APA under merit channel to an average 75% of marks of APA with minimum 60% marks in each preceding five years of service.
To align the policy in line with the fresh guidelines issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance vide letter dated April 04, 2013.
7.
Relaxation in eligibility norms
The Board of Directors may, at their discretion, relax the minimum length of service for Seniority and Merit Channel of Promotions by maximum one year.

The Board of Directors may, at their discretion, relax the minimum length of service for Seniority and Merit Channel of Promotions by maximum one year.
Bank with the prior approval of the Board may provide a further relaxation of three months in minimum requirement of service in each scale.
To align the policy in line with the fresh guidelines issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance vide letter dated April 04, 2013.
10.5 & 10.6
Computer Literacy Test for Promotion to Scale IV &Scale V

10.5:
The selection process for Promotion from MMGS III to SMGS IV shall comprise of Test for Computer Knowledge, Professional Qualifications, Group Discussion, Interview and performance in Scale III.

10.6:
The selection process for Promotion from SMGS IV to SMGS V shall comprise of Test for Computer Knowledge, Interview, Group Discussion, and performance in Scale IV.


10.5:
The selection process for Promotion from MMGS III to SMGS IV shall comprise of Test for Computer Knowledge (Only Once), Professional Qualifications, Group Discussion, Interview and performance in Scale III.
10.6:
The selection process for Promotion from SMGS IV to SMGS V shall comprise of Test for Computer Knowledge (Only Once), Interview, Group Discussion, and performance in Scale IV.
Candidates, who qualify in Computer Knowledge Test once, will not be required to appear in the said Test again for Promotion from Scale III to Scale IV and/or Scale IV to Scale V.


Neither the Govt. guidelines stipulate nor is it prudent to ask an officer to appear in this examination after having qualified again and again.  


13
Number of Officers to be considered for promotion
For promotion to all Scales, all eligible Officers can apply for promotion. However, Officers to the extent of 3 times of number of Posts for which promotions are being considered will be allowed to participate in the process. In case the required number of suitable persons is not available, the Bank may enhance this to 1:4 with prior approval of the Board.
For promotion to all Scales, the number of candidates eligible for promotion shall be restricted to 3 times of the number of vacancies.
In case, within the zone of consideration, adequate number of fresh candidates is not available, the same can be extended beyond 4 times with prior approval of the Board.
However, Bank with the approval of the Board, can relax the zone of consideration beyond 4 times, so as to include all officers promoted on the same date / in the same batch.





To align the promotion policy in line with the new Govt. guidelines received vide their letter dated April 04, 2013.
16.5 Determination of vacancies in various scales for Specialist Officers
Vacancies shall be in 2:1 ratio for promotion from Scale I to Scale II and from Scale II to Scale III (i.e. if there are two eligible candidates for promotion, one vacancy will be created).  If the number of eligible candidates for promotion is less than two in any Specialist discipline, the Executive Director in charge of HR shall determine the vacancy position. For promotion from MMG Scale III to SMG Scale IV, the vacancies shall be need-based, to be sanctioned by the Chairman & Managing Director. Apart from this, the Chairman and Managing Director is authorized to declare the number of vacancies in any Scale on a need-based manner.
Vacancies will be in same ratio for promotion from Scale I to II and Scale II to III as applicable in case of GBOs.
To elaborate, if there are 100 vacancies in Scale II and 400 Scale I Officers based on inter se seniority come in Zone of consideration which comprises say 20 Specialist Officers, the vacancies for Specialist Officers will be 20/4 i.e.5.
For promotion from MMG Scale III to SMG Scale IV, the vacancies shall be need-based, to be sanctioned by the Chairman & Managing Director. Apart from this, the Chairman and Managing Director is authorized to declare the number of vacancies in any Scale on a need-based manner.
To bring parity.

The aforesaid modifications will be applicable from the ensuing Promotion Process (eligibility date - 01.04.2013).

You are advised to bring the contents of the Circular to the notice of all the Officers working under your jurisdiction.



(A.P.Ghugal)
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