RBI employees to go ahead with mass casual leave

KOLKATA: Reserve Bank of India employees have rejected Governor Urjit Patel's request to withdraw their two-day mass leave programme, arguing they are left with no choice but to intensify their agitation to fight for the long pending pension issues.The employees have called for mass leave on September 4 and 5 under the banner of the United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees.The employees of the central bank are demanding pension updation for about 21,000 retirees and one more chance to switch from Contributory Provident Fund (CPF) to pension for 2600 CPF retainersGovernor Patel as well as past governors supported their plea, but successive governments turned a blind eye.What has really angered the employees is the fact that the ministry of finance had revised pension for nearly 55 lakh central government employees and has recently updated pension for professors and non-teaching staff of UGC sponsored universities.“The governor requested us to reconsider the agitation programme as it would hamper the prestige of RBI when the international financial situation is in turmoil and the Indian economy is facing challenges. But we have no alternative but to intensify the agitation as the pension issue has been lingering for over a decade,” Samir Ghosh, general secretary of All India Reserve Bank Employees Association, told ET.“Our agitation was not against the governor or the central board or the bank management, but against the bureaucracy which has refused to see reason and created a situation of extreme turmoil in RBI,” Ghosh explained.Patel, in fact, wrote to the ministry in October last year recommending one more option to CPF retainers and improvement of pension.The association members also credited the governor for his efforts in improving medical benefits in the form of group insurance for OPD treatment for pensioners."RBI governors, past and present, had taken up the issue with the government but the finance ministry every time turned down our demand which is most unjustified," they said.

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