SBI chairman A K Purwar on Friday made a fresh appeal to his striking employees to return to work, saying the government was 'closely examining' their demands and could take a 'review' shortly, but the plea was rejected by the staff.
He said the bank has suffered 'huge' loss and business was going to other banks. "I have been assured by the government they are closely examining and could be taking a review shortly," Purwar said.
"Huge...unbelievably huge (loss) for the bank, for the people in the bank and the Indian economy," he said as the strike by employees seeking higher pension entered the fifth day on Friday.
Asked if the quantum of loss was in hundreds of crores, he said, "yes, absolutely".
But unions rejected Purwar's appeal to resume work, saying the ball was in the government's court.
"The situation stands as it was on April 5 (when the conciliatory meeting between the employees and the government failed)," All India SBI Staff Federation vice-president V K Gupta said.
Citing extreme inconvenience to 10 crores (100 million) customers and working class people, Purwar said the time was not appropriate for an indefinite strike and genuine demands could be expressed in other ways.
"There are losses. Government has started shifting its business in different states to other banks. Our existing business is now being shifted...it's very difficult to get business," a visibly perturbed Purwar said.
On Thursday, SBI empoyees unions rejected Finance Minister P Chidambaram's appeal to end the strike citing concilliatory talks were on to resolve their demand.
The unions have offered to restrict their demand for 50 per cent of last drawn salary as pension up to the general manager level.
Putting a ceiling on that level means the upper limit of pension would be around Rs 16,000 per month against the present Rs 4,250.
But, employee unions say the management was willing to offer pension with a ceiling of Rs 9,500, which was lower than 50 per cent of the basic salary of senior clerk
A report from Kolkata states that CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta on Friday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and find a reasonable solution to the workers' demand without further delay.
In a letter to the prime minister, Dasgupta, who is also the general secretary of the CPI's trade union body All India Trade Union Congress, said the government should not insist on withdrawal of strike as a pre-condition for talks with the unions.
"Withdrawal of strike as a pre-condition for discussion was always insisted upon by the previous NDA government. Why should the UPA government follow suit?" the CPI leader asked.
"I am told Finance minister P Chidambaram does not have time to talk to the employees and has made withdrawal of the strike a pre-condition for a discussion. Such a stand is unwarranted," Dasgupta said.
The CPI leader said "If the bank management is ready to agree to the revision why should the government stand in the way?
"When the government speaks of autonomy in the public sector, it does not allow the bank management to have its own way," Dasgupta said in the letter.
Meanwhile, ATMs of SBI have started going dry. SBI has around 2,000 ATMs and each ATM had Rs 12.5 lakhs (Rs 1.25 million) on the day of the strike.
SBI handles 19 per cent of deposits and 30 per cent of customers in the banking industry through its 9,000 branches.
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