In 2011-12, the number of customers of State Bank of India went up by 27.06 lakh over the previous year.

The number of transactions handled by the bank went up by 338.56 lakh and the number of branches went up by 645. Yet the number of employees fell 7,452 during the period.

As at the end of last year, the number of State Bank of India employees stood at 2,15,481 against 2,22,933 a year ago. This is not good, says Mr G.D. Nadaf, General Secretary, All India State Bank Officers’ Federation (AISBOF).

The employees are “feeling the pressure”, Mr Nadaf told Business Line today, adding that most officers are having to sit late hours at office to complete their work.

“This will not only affect the health of the employees, but also the health of the bank,” Mr Nadaf said.

Retirement, recruitment

Furthermore, in the next couple of years about 25 per cent of the bank’s staff is due to retire, Mr Nadaf, who is also the Officer-Director on the Board of SBI, said.

He said that while there was no ban on recruitment, intake of employees in sufficient numbers was just not happening.

Mr Nadaf said that the Government was measuring manpower requirements against parameters such as ‘business per employee’.

“But this is not the correct way,” he said, pointing out that the employees were doing a lot of other miscellaneous work such as cross-selling of products.

>mramesh@thehindu.co.in