Regular employees to become thin minority at 18 pc
By CL Jose
KOCHI/July 23-2022: The oldest private sector bank from Kerala looks like readying itself to become ‘trendier’ by running the bank with cost-to-company (CTC) employees as is in vogue with most new-wave banks.
Having gone through several odds in the past couple of years and having been unique being the only bank in the country to be majority owned by a single foreign entity (now below 50 pc), the Thrissur-headquartered CSB Bank is all set to create a sustainable CTC-heavy workforce by recruiting 2000 more CTC employees during this financial year itself.
The move gains significance in the wake of the ‘souring equations’ between the Fairfax-led management and the 1300-odd regular staff, who complain being looked down upon as ‘cantankerous’ employees by many.
The new recruitment drive will take the strength of the CTC workforce in the bank to 5500, further diminishing the relevance of the regular staff (under IBA scale) to a minuscule in number.
The hiring spree coincides with the bank’s plan to open 100 branches during the current financial year taking the number to around 705 by the close of the year.
Healthy PCR, CRAR
Nevertheless, CSB Bank has logged growth on all fronts with the net profit for the first quarter (Q1, FY23) climbing 88 per cent year-on-year to Rs115 crore.
Today, CSB Bank boasts one of industry’s best provision coverage ratio (PCR) at 90 per cent and capital adequacy ratio or CRAR at 25.46 per cent as on June 30, 2022.
(It may be a rare coincidence that CSB and SIB, both from Thrissur, closed Q1 with identical net profit of Rs115 crore)
CTC model
CTC model, which has been a law rather than an exception among the so-called new-wave banks in the country, is slowly percolating down to the Kerala-based banks that are mostly centenarians or soon-to-be ones.
CTC model arguably helps the management hold the workforce under control much more effectively as these recruitments are basically driven by contracts and do not have allegiance to unions.
Pralay Mondal, the deputy MD and the interim head of CSB Bank, said while the CTC employee strength will climb to 5500 from the present 3500, that of the regular category could drop to 1200 from 1300, primarily thanks to the routine retirements during the year.
The once bindass workforce (regular) in the bank led by multiple unions will be further minoritized by the new recruitment wave that will see the regular staff getting reduced to near 18 per cent.
Since the takeover of the bank by the Fairfax India Holdings (FIH) in 2018, the CSB Bank staff bemoan, the whole system in the bank went through an overhaul beginning with the ‘christening’ of Catholic Syrian Bank into CSB Bank.
The alleged ‘clampdown’ initiated by the former managing director had sent jitters through the spine of the legacy staff which, according to the union leaders, are left in the lurch, being denied their rightful wage revision demand.
Talking to businessbenchmark.news, an employees union leader said the revision of wage and benefits under the settlement has been hanging fire since November 1, 2017.
“Though the management had given promises on this count earlier, it now looks not giving a hoot about these demands,” he said.
Spectre of CTC
The spectre of CTC now looms over the banking industry in Kerala at large. Federal Bank has implemented CTC for the executives from Grade 4 onwards, whereas certain advertisements taken out by South Indian Bank (SIB) for recruitments clearly mention about CTC regime once hired.
Wage revision still in ‘cold storage’
The legacy (regular) employees, who have been fighting for their ‘long-due’ wage settlement under the 11th bipartite settlement have become a worried lot with the management looks dragging its feet on their demands.
