Centre not keen on staff representatives on bank boards: AIBEA

Chennai: The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stating that the Central government does not want its representatives on the boards of public sector banks.

In his letter to Sitharaman on Monday, AIBEA's General Secretary C.H.Venkatachalam said under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970/1980, a representative of trade union of workmen employee and a representative of officers are appointed as directors on the boards of all the public sector banks.

"The posts of these employee and officer representative directors are vacant in all the public sector banks for the pasts five years. The panel of names of have been submitted to the bank managements and the government, but for reasons not known to us, the appointments have not taken place and all these posts remain vacant," he said.

Some of the employees whose names were submitted in the panel have since retired and so we have even submitted a revised list of names. Even after that, the appointments have been kept pending.

"This has created a strong feeling in the minds of the bank employees that the government is avoiding employee representatives on the boards," Venkatachalam said.