Mumbai, Feb 25: The State Bank of India (SBI) has kicked off "functional audit" at its headquarters in the city to identify excess staff. This is perhaps the first instance of a public sector bank undertaking an exercise to identify flab at its central office.Senior State Bank executives said, "The objective of the exercise is to re-examine the staff pattern at the headquarters." Akil Banerjee, general manager (on special duty) -- who was earlier posted at the Industrial Development Bank of India as a vigilance officer on deputation -- is conducting the exercise. Insiders are, however, sceptical of the outcome.
"Functional audit may prove futile as it is difficult to identify excess staff. At the bank's central office, which houses the entire top-brass, there is no standard productivity norm to identify excess staff," sources said. Over a thousand employees work at the headquarters. Chairman MS Verma, two managing directors, five deputy managing directors and dozens of chief general managers occupy thecentral office.
"Even if the functional audit unearths some excess staff, it will not be possible to redeploy them in the face of pressure from trade unions," sources said. State Bank is one of the big public sector banks which account for excess staff. Two other Mumbai-based public sector banks -- Bank of India and Central Bank of India -- are also heavily over-staffed.
"Increasing computerisation is rendering a sizable amount of bank staff excess day-by-day even though employees are not averse to taking voluntary retirement after the implementation of the pension scheme," said an industryanalyst.
Some PSU banks are drawing up plans to go on a branch expansion spree to redeploy their excess staff.
"The objective is to expand business without resorting to fresh recruitments. This will automatically raise the productivity ratio," said a Bank of India executive. The bank is planning to open about 20 new branches in the city next fiscal.
The Indian Banks' Association, in its presentation before theNarasimham panel, has called for freedom to merge or close down bank branches. Since the move may result in excess staff, the association is in favour of finding an "exit route" for the "redundant" employees.However, the finance ministry is not too keen on introducing a golden handshake in the banking sector.
"Apart from the cost factor, we may the lose efficient hands once the scheme is introduced," a ministry source said.
The finance ministry shot down the Calcutta-based Uco Bank's plan to offer VRS to its excess employees in 1995-96. Uco Bank wanted to trim the flab and use a part of the union government's recapitalisation fund to finance the package.
Copyright(c)1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
