TCS has given pink slips to a small percentage of its employees for non-performance. This has to be viewed in context; it shouldn’t become a cause for unionism, disappointment with house of Tata and activism. It’s important to consider some things. TCS spends a lot of time and money on recruitment and hence they are unlikely to fire people on frivolous grounds. Thanks to a bad university system, it is impossible to determine who will do well based on marks and tests conducted; it should be anticipated that some will not make the grade. Keeping someone on even when they are not performing is an injustice to those who performer well. Lastly, it is unfair to keep someone on just because it is convenient for TCS; this will prove harmful to the retained person’s career.
DN Prahlad
Fix responsibility
Narendar Pani has lucidly showcased the plight of the impoverished (‘Inequality is rising, but who cares?’ January 7); the photograph drives home the point. The slogan, ‘Garibi Hatao’, of the Congress has not achieved any tangible results; instead we have ‘Garib Hatao’ (drive out the poor). There are welfare measures but they don’t reach the target group thanks to the presence vested interests. We must fix responsibility and accountability with a foolproof audit system to stonewall the misuse of funds. Until this is done, there is no way of bringing down the rising inequality.
HP Murali
Bengaluru
Wage revision is a reality
This refers to the report ‘Bank strike put off; IBA raises wage revision offer to 12.5 per cent’ (January 7). It is high time wage revision across industries and sectors is accepted as a part of human resource management and is approached in a scientific way. It should factor in various things such as market-related minimum wages depending on skill requirement and incentive and disincentive in the remuneration package, ‘adjusting’ these at much shorter periodicity than 5 years.
Wage revision should be implemented as soon as possible after the expiry of each wage settlement and individual banks should have the freedom to pay more to attract talent for specialised jobs. There should be some relationship between minimum and maximum remuneration in the same organisation. This being the first wage revision after discontinuing defined benefit pension schemes, the load for providing for a retired life should be factored in.
MG Warrier
Thiruvananthapuram
Well said
In the editorial ‘Power and accountability’ (January 7),you have hit the nail on its head. There is not point doing lip service on bank autonomy if managements are not adequately empowered and not allowed to take a commercial call on banking services.
The dichotomy between national interest and commercial viability is the main culprit. The time has come to free PSBs from the clutches of the government. The concrete decisions arrived at in Pune should be made clear. Else, the conference will not have a meaningful outcome.
RS Raghavan
Bengaluru
Keep government out
It is interference from and the invisible hand of the government that has impeded the growth of PSBs. There is adequate talent in PSBs. While their performance in nation building has not been assessed in economic terms, the latent value addition cannot ignored. Whether it’s the green revolution, infrastructure financing, financial inclusion or the Jan Dhan Yojana, PSBs have outperformed their peers. The focus is more on social banking than commercial banking.
PSBs have resorted to the wrong principle of punishing for the failure and rewarding for the non-failure of commercial decisions. Often, this has meant punishment for decisions that went wrong because they were beyond the comprehension of personnel, while non-performers who don’t take decisions are rewarded since technically they have not recorded ‘failures’. Splitting the top post without other changes will only give the government a bigger hand.
S Veeraraghavan
Madurai
Leave PSBs alone
Even simple rural banking cooperatives have not improved in ten decades. All the ills of dual control and partisan interests got needlessly transmitted to the more modern PSU banks. This resulted in unprofessional management systems. The advent of private sector banks did improve the quality of government banks.
Changes in the regulatory framework, rising customer expectations, shift in employee demography and changes in technology have emerged as key drivers of change for PSBs. They are gearing up to meet demands from expansion, optimise resources, increase their presence across the value chain, renew focus on R&D and innovation, create a better performance culture and service customer demands effectively. The government must now work towards cutting its stake. This will help raise capital through the divestment route, aid in systematic recapitalisation and bring in capable leadership.
R Narayanan
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
Window dressing
With reference to the editorial, ‘Of sell-offs and write offs’ (January 6), while PSBs have been asked to boost the economy by giving loans to clients who have neither the willingness to repay nor the capacity, the recovery of NPAs is the first priority of managers. The sale of NPAs to ARCs only helps window dress the balance sheet. Though the RBI’s intervention is welcome, debt recovery tribunals thwart the good attempts for recovery of NPAs.
VK Sridhar
Erode, Tamil Nadu
While liberalisation in India has scored many points, it has not been successful in certain areas. Sectors like agriculture, food processing and biotechnology, spices,traditional textiles and engineering must be given a fillip because not only would they generate foreign exchange, they would also fetch prices for millions of our farmers and improve the prospects of textile workers. The Centre should focus on these sectors and allocate funds for their development.
Lakshmi Narasimhan Balarman
Coimbatore
Wrong call
The strike call given by the United Forum of Bank Unions on January 7 should not have been deferred at the last minute based on the offer of a meagre 1.5 per cent increase by the IBA. There is a huge gap between the demands of the unions and what the IBA is offering.
Even though the employees of PSBs had wholeheartedly participated in the Jan Dhan Yojana and surpassed targets, the Prime Minister praised the staff but did not intervene in the settlement of wages. It is unfortunate that bank employees have not been compensated for the high inflation of the last two years through some interim relief as was done for State government employees. Even now it is not too late.
TSN Rao
Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh
Invaluable scheme
With reference to the report, ‘Allow employees to choose salary payment mode’ (January 6), the move appears to be prejudiced as no labour organisation or association seems to have been taken on board. An attempt has been made to sweep all the labour welfare schemes with one broom. A distinction needs to be made for rationalisation.
Mention may however be made of the ESI Scheme administered by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to prove the point. This is a comprehensive social security scheme which has been providing comprehensive medical care to the covered employees as well as their dependants. Besides it covers and compensates for the wage losses of the employee due to sickness, accident, maternity, and so on for as long as up to two years. There is as yet no upper expenditure ceiling for any entitled employee or his/her dependants.
The ESIC spends over 60 per cent of the contributions on medical treatments and care of employees and dependants alone. It has its own network of around 1,400 dispensaries and 150 hospitals, and has tie-up arrangements with over 700 good private hospitals all over the country. Remarkably, the ESIC spends less than 10 per cent of its funds on administrative operations, and it offers special incentives to the North-East States.
And for all this the employees’ contribution is only 1.75 per cent of their salary. Of course the employers add another 4.75 per cent. The only area of concern is reimbursement of expenditure incurred by the employee in private hospitals in emergencies, for which there is a ceiling. This can be and needs to be revisited for reimbursement in full in all genuine cases. Further, employees’ contributions are duly and fully accounted for on a single identifier: the ESIC number of each employee throughout the country.
The benefits conceptualised under the ESI scheme are unmatched. Its intangible contribution is invaluable in the industrial production and economic growth of the nation. Any tinkering with the scheme may prove counter-productive.
Arvind Kumar
Jammu
Real problem
‘Strange approach to fixing power tariffs’ by K Vishnu Mohan Rao (January 6) was very topical and reflected the reality. All three members of TNERC were ex-employees of TNEB.
The Electricity Amendment Bill 2014 incorporates the order of APTEL dated 11-11-2011 empowering the Regulatory Commission to determine the tariff even in the absence of a request from the utilities. Any penalisation of the utilities for their non-compliance is again rests with the regulator under Section 142 of the Electricity Act, 2003. Therefore the utility by capturing the regulator can go ahead with its own plans.
The Shunglu Committee of the erstwhile Planning Commission had recommended that those who have been associated with the State government or the utilities should not be appointed as the regulator. The Electricity Amendment Bill 2014 has ignored this recommendation.
D Balasundaram
Coimbatore