Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], November 27: All India Union Bank Officer Staff Association (AIUBOSA) is a trade union affiliated to All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) which is one of the constituents of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). Having its office in Chennai, the association under the supervision of its general secretary D S Ganesan keeps leading from the front when it comes to matters related to bank officers.
What distinguishes this trade union from others is the way it keeps working for the rights and benefits of the officers. While the union continues to evolve according to the changing socio-political, economic, and technological environment; it never compromises from its core values. All its decisions are guided by key ethos of equity, equality, justice, transparency, uniformity, consistency, and integrity. For it, quality matters over quantity when it comes to adding members to the association. Its top leaders are not only knowledgeable and multi-talented but also devoted to the cause of bankers and the nation as a whole. In the ever-evolving technological landscape, AIUBOSA marks its presence on Facebook, X (Twitter), YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram while also having its own website.
Some of the major reforms that are brought about by AIUBOSA are:
- Proper distribution of vacancies under normal and fast tracks.
- Reduction of career path of marketing officers and rural development officers up to scale 2 only.
- Implementation of Govt. of India guidelines and Board approved policies in transfer postings.
- Bringing out lacuna in promotion process and intervening at the right time.
- Stopping the lateral transfer of women officers throughout the country (the court case is under progress).
But these are not the only feathers in the hat of All India Officer Staff Association. Through its legal interventions it has benefitted officers across the public sector banks in India. Some of the prominent changes that became possible only because of AIUBOSA are:
- Communication of appraisal marks to the officers.
- Officers now have the right to appeal against the appraisal marks allocated and get them reviewed.
- Unlike the previous conditions, now an officer has to fetch only 75 marks on an average in the last 3 years appraisal in order to appear for the promotion process.
- Reduction in debarment period from three years to one year only in case of refusal of promotion.
- Halting of direct scale 3 recruitments in PSBs.
- Inclusion of batch concept in the promotion process (regardless of date of joining, candidates belonging to same batch will be eligible to appear in promotion process).
In the last decade, AIUBOSA has been showing the way when it comes to issues of officer cadre on national level. The union is committed to:
- Protect the public sector character of the PSBs.
- Achieve regulated working hours for bank officers.
- Bring 5 days banking with all Saturdays off.
- Better wage revision for the bank officers.
- Maintain the job safety of public sector bankers.
- Removal of anomalies in the promotion and transfer exercises.
- Conversion of specialist officers to generalist stream as per Govt. of India guidelines.
- Ensure transparency and equal opportunity for all officers.
Some of the prevalent issues troubling the Indian banking sector are: frequent reforms by the govt., lack of RBI monitoring and control, private and foreign players dominating in govt decision making, privatization and merger of banks, non-action on major defaulters, coercive attitude of bank managements, uncontrolled disbursal of loans without security, manipulation of financials and performance data of the banks, departure from core-banking to “we also do banking”, acute shortage of staff, indifference to concerns and wellbeing of the employees, pressure through targets/punishment/daily reviews, ever deteriorating work culture, lack of well-defined policies and their implementation, media maligning the brand image of PSBs, and so on. Despite these challenges, AIUBOSA is committed to fight for the bank officers and holds the view that being a mute spectator will only increase the gravity of the already alarming situation. If the nation has to progress its financial sector has to perform well, which is impossible without the PSBs doing good.
At the end, one can only say that for any matter pertaining to the rights and welfare of the bank officers’ community, the union is paving the way through its gen-next leaders under the charismatic guidance of its General Secretary who imbibes integrity and dedication across the association. AIUBOSA believes in bringing positive change through active participation of officers and work without fear or favor to anyone.
“The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of the good people” – Napoleon Bonaparte.