PSBs in the district reeling under staff shortage, additional workload

Many branches have one or two clerk, no senior level officials

VAIBHAV PARWAT

Aurangabad, Aug 2:

Many Public Sector Banks (PSB) in the district have shown substantial increase in overall business, but many are understaffed and are struggling with the shortage of clerical employees. A few bank branches in rural areas are running with a strength of two to three employees.

Senior bank officials have been voicing concerns about the increasing workload as there has hardly been any active recruitment in the past five years. The merger has also caused a large number of clerical employees to take voluntary retirement and reduced the number of posts.

The PSBs have seen its profits double per employee (overall profit divided by the number of employees) while the number of clerks per branch has reduced to almost half of what it was 10 years back, said bankers. Of the 473 bank branches in the district, about 25-30 do not have even a single clerk.

Further, over one-third branches are operating with just one or two clerks per branch. A total of 59 branches have three to four clerks each. About 50 per cent branches do not have the right clerk-workload balance, according to bank sources.

One employee for 500 customers

There is hardly one employee for every 500 to 1000 customers in most PSBs in the district and this increases the work load on existing staffers. In private banks, the employee-customer ratio ranges from one in 100 to one in 300. Recruitment has been almost nil in PSBs or is either happening through contract basis or a very few placements are happening at the higher level,” said Rakesh Kshirsagar, representative of All India Banks Employees Association.

Number of branches reduced:

There were 537 bank branches in Aurangabad district till 2019. That number dropped to 473. The number of branches which was 213 in Parbhani district in 2017, has come down to 204 in 2021. The number of branches in Nanded district has decreased from 271 to 259. In Latur, the number fell from 285 to 275. The number of branches in Osmanabad reduced from 232 to 204.

Posts vacant in PSBs: (in district)

Banks Clerks Officials

State Bank of India 60 38

Bank of Maharashtra 55 22

Punjab National Bank 36 17

Bank of Baroda 28 15

Bank of India 13 6