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| Sunday, 12 May 2002 |
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Politics |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Bank
unions to join hands in anti-privatisation campaign
by P. Krishnasamy Trade Unions representing executives, clerks, computer staff and minor employees of both the People's Bank and the Bank of Ceylon are to join hands for an island-wide public campaign to forestall any government moves to privatise the People's Bank. At a press conference held last Friday in Colombo, representatives from the Ceylon Bank Employees' Union, SLFP Union, Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya and the People's Bank Officers' Union expressed their grave concern over moves to privatise the state-owned banks. The People's Bank was established in 1961 to serve the masses, particularly the peasantry, by offering easy payment loan facilities for their economic welfare. The Bank continued to perform that task very effectively and patriotically with an indomitable spirit, the union representatives said. The unions, with more than 12,000 as members, will show their strength and solidarity at their proposed protest campaigns and they will also meet the public, the parliamentarians, provincial councillors and religious dignitaries and stage a signature campaign to mobilise support for their campaign. The Union representatives were apprehensive of the proposed restructuring of both the state banks - the People's Bank and the Bank of Ceylon - as a first step in a sell-off of wider national assets. Already 14 foreigners work in the People's Bank with the payment of huge salaries. According to the Union leaders, a top executive of the Bank has told the Online Dow Jones Business News, that they were looking at various ways to further reduce costs, risks and to institutionalise reforms and introduce changes to the People's Bank Act, to make it a public limited company. The report had also stated that the UNF government, in a recent letter of intent to the IMF, had stated that plans were being considered for more decisive restricting of state-owned Bank of Ceylon and People's Bank. Under advice from the World Bank and the IMF, the rapid growth of the People's Bank, which was a people's institution, was crippled since 1994 by introducing several restrictions. During the 11 year period since 1990, the People's Bank has been able to open only one additional branch while the other commercial banks in the country had opened 342 branches, the Union representatives said. |
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