Banking services across the country and money markets maybe partially impacted due to a mass casual leave planned by the 17,000 employees of the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Thursday. The mass leave is planned to press for the implementation of the pension revision recommendation that is pending with the government for the past 8 years. The mass leave is also to protest against the reforms that the government is planning for the central bank. The last time RBI employees struck work was in 2009, again for higher pensions.
However, RBI is likely to keep the RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) and NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer) operational so that the banking services and money market operations are not impacted.
Technically, all the staff excluding the RBI governor, four deputy governors and the 11 executive directors are not part of any association or union of the RBI and are exempt from the mass leave programme.
A senior official said, "Even if they are not part of any association nothing stops them from taking a casual leave. Even I will come to office but will apply for casual to support the cause. Both the pension and the autonomy of the RBI is close to everyone's heart. The four unions, which also include the Officers Union, say the reforms are likely to reduce the RBI's regulatory powers and take away debt management operations away from the central bank.
The plans to set up the Monetary Policy Committee, and plans to curb the foreign exchange management is another sore point for the unions. Members of the RBI officers and employees associations fear that government nominees on the committee will erode the decision making powers of the RBI, which has fought all along to maintain its autonomy.
The uncertainty kept many banks away from government bonds on Wednesday, with volumes falling to Rs 9,265 crore, less than half of its daily average.
RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has supported the creation of Monetary Policy Committee, a rate setting body, saying that he is open to rate decisions being a collective one out of consensus rather can driven by just one person – the governor – as is the practice now. But RBI opposed the idea of majority members in the committee being from the government, saying that it would make the central bank function redundant.
The governor has also agreed to ceding the management of debt to a special committee appointed by the government.
The United Forum of Reserve Bank officers and employees have said that the agitation is to save RBI and also for pension related issues. It said that if the government fails to keep its hands off RBI, then the agitation will be escalate in the coming days.
