In a bid to optimize its costs, the State bank of India (SBI) has planned a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) under which about 30,190 employees are eligible. the full employee strength of the country’s largest lender stood at 2.49 lakh at the give up of March 2020 compared to 2.57 lakh in the past. According to sources, a draft scheme for VRS has been organized and board approval is awaited. The proposed scheme — ‘second Innings tap VRS-2020′ — is aimed at optimizing human resources and costs of the bank.
Besides, the draft scheme, visible by way of PTI, stated it’s going to provide a choice and a respectable exit route to employees who’ve reached a level of saturation of their career, won’t be at the peak in their overall performance, have some personal issue or need to pursue their professional or non-public life outside the bank.
The scheme will be opened to all permanent officers and workforce who’ve put in 25 years of service or completed 55 years of age at the cut-off date. The scheme will open on December 1 and could continue to be open till the end of February, it said, including that applications for VRS might be accepted during this period only.
As per the proposed eligibility criteria, a complete of 11,565 officials and 18,625 staff members will be eligible for the scheme. The total internet saving for the bank would be Rs 1,662.86 crore if 30 percent of eligible employees choose retirement under the scheme, as in keeping with estimates based on July 2020 earnings, it stated.
“The staff member whose request for retirement under VRS is conventional will be paid an ex-gratia amounting 50 percent salary or income for the residual period of service, challenge to a most of 18 months’ final drawn income,” it stated. Other benefits like gratuity, pension, provident and medical benefits will be given to employees searching for VRS.
A body of workers member retired below the scheme might be eligible for engagement or re-employment inside the bank after a cooling-off period of two years from the date of retirement.
Beforehand of the amalgamation of SBI’s 5 associates with it in 2017, the merging subsidiaries had introduced VRS for their employees. In 2001 also the bank had announced VRS to optimize human resources. But, the proposed VRS scheme isn’t finding favour with bank unions.
This kind of move at a time when the country is inside the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic reflects the anti-worker attitude of management, National Organisation of bank workers vice president Ashwani Rana stated.
