220 SBM workers fear SBI will sack them, move HC

As many as 220 employees of the erstwhile State Bank of Mysore (SBM) have approached the High Court of Karnataka urging it to direct the State Bank of India (SBI) to absorb them on a permanent basis with all the emoluments and benefits accruing to the posts they hold.

C Ravi and other sweepers-cum-peons at various branches of the SBM said the SBI had put them on notice despite an assurance by the erstwhile bank that their services would be regularised after the amalgamation.

On Saturday, the SBM and five other banks merged with the SBI. The employees said the SBI told them it would retain only permanent and regular officers from the SBM.

The petitioners have cited a memorandum of settlement reached between the SBM and the SBI that calls for regularising the services of temporary peons who have worked for more than 240 days in a block period of 12 months in any calendar year.

They said most of them had worked for more than a decade, while some others had put in almost 20 years.

The petitioners said the SBI’s stand was “contrary” to the understanding arrived at between the managements of both the banks. They also said they would be “financially ruined” if their jobs were suddenly taken away because most of them were the sole breadwinners in their families. They fear the SBI would sack them.

Justice G Narendra restrained the SBI and the SBM from altering the service conditions of the petitioners or sacking them. He also ordered that notices be issued to the Ministry of Finance, the SBI and the SBM, and adjourned the hearing until April 13.