BANK WOMEN RESOLVE TO ASSERT AND FIGHT AGAINST HUMILIATION

S V Venugopalan

“We may have to conduct a whole day work shop for our bank women comrades to learn to say No,” said Premalatha amidst thunderous applause from the audience. The Joint Convenor of the women’s subcommittee of Bank Employees Federation of India-Tamilnadu had just commenced her summing up of the deliberations made in the women employees special meet organised by BEFI in Chennai City on 8th January 2011.

Prema made the observation, inspired by one of the delegates who had exhorted the gathering to assert their position in the workplace. There was no need to be submissive and implement unreasonable orders of the authorities who like to take the lady employees for granted. Premalatha further qualified this call by stating that unlike the reformist leaderships who choose to question the complainants in case of harassment instead of defending the victims, the BEFI leaders stand by them and solidly back the struggle against the wrong doers. In the face of increasing workload and the pressure-prone branch atmosphere, women opt to quit on VRS, but it is the trade union task to retain them and fight to restore dignity, she said.

Coming just before the 8th all India Conference of BEFI to be held later this January at Bhubaneswar, this special meet was earlier addressed by the Chief Guest, Malathi Chittibabu, Convenor, Working Women’s Co-ordination Committee (CITU), who brought to the notice of the house the ongoing bitter struggle against inhuman oppression and denial of dignity being waged by workers, especially the women workers, in MNCs and other industries. She lauded the undaunted spirit of the young women workers of the Foxconn company at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, even braving arrests. The CITU leader pointed out the plight of women workers in the informal sector and appealed to them to support these workers in their struggle. She wondered whether the bank employees were returning to their earlier days of suffering and called upon the women to first and foremost strengthen the trade union to fight against the anti-labour managements and anti-people policies of the government. The meet was presided over by Uma Devi (Indian Bank), Shyamala (Canara Bank) and Kondamma (Union Bank). Suseela Ramachandran, Joint Convenor, placed the report for discussion, giving an outline of problems faced in respect of transfers, workload and other issues. She cited the heroic struggle undertaken in October 2009 by IBEF in Indian Bank.

The list of demands placed included comprehensive legislation against sexual harassment at the workplace, for fresh recruitment, exclusive basic amenities for women in branches, leave benefits on par with women in Central Government jobs, etc. A lively discussion followed with a good number of women employees participating and highlighting the challenges faced by them in branches. There was a demand for achieving special leave for menopause related sickness within the overall maternity leave. The President of BEFI-TN, T Tamilarasu, greeted the gathering while K Krishnan, General Secretary, BEFI-TN delivered the concluding address.

Over a hundred women from various banks attended the special meet and took part enthusiastically in the proceedings.

Courtesy: www.citucentre.org/