A senior central bank official said the RBI will address employees’ concerns.
Employees of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) staged protests on Friday at multiple offices of the central bank across the country, including the headquarters in Mumbai, against a new internal policy that ties promotions to vacancies instead of the earlier time-bound system.
In a letter to Governor Sanjay Malhotra, the Reserve Bank of India Officers’ Association (RBIOA) said, “We earnestly request the top management to reconsider the matter urgently and initiate a comprehensive review of the revised promotion policy in consultation with RBIOA so as to arrive at a fair, balanced and sustainable framework for career progression of officers.”
A senior central bank official said the RBI will address employees’ concerns.
“The RBI reviews the internal HR policy from time to time. The central bank will discuss with employees about the issues involved and address their concerns,” the official said. However, the RBI’s official spokesperson did not respond to a mail from The Indian Express about the HR changes and the protests. Protesting employees were addressed by Deputy Governor Swaminathan J on Friday in the Mumbai head office.
In the letter, RBIOA General Secretary Jeet Pathak said the association had participated in the consultative process with the legitimate expectation that the long-standing issue of stagnation in the officer cadre would finally be addressed.
“In your interactions with us and with our members at regional offices, you have indicated the possibility of a few timebound promotions. However, the final policy has not only failed to address the structural stagnation prevailing across grades but has also disregarded the core concerns repeatedly highlighted by the Association,” RBIOA said in the letter. “Assured, time-bound promotions may be introduced across all cadres from Grade A to Grade E, ensuring fair and predictable career progression for officers,” the letter further said. Under the revised policy, updated on May 5, while promotion from Grade B to C will continue to be time-bound and take a minimum of 7 years, stepping up from Grade C to D and further up to Grade F will be on the basis of available vacancies in the higher rank. According to RBI officers, there is acute stagnation, which the RBI management is unable to address due to the lack of long-term manpower planning.
“The revised policy will especially impact promotions from Grade C to D. The result of this policy will be that at the level of C, the officer could possibly remain at the same level for even 15 years. For instance, once you make Grade D to Grade E vacancy-based, then vacancy at Grade D also reduces as fewer people get promoted to Grade E. So, stagnation at Grade C also increases. This year, for example, there were around 40 Grade D vacancies, but the upcoming batch of Grade C officers have 150-200 people on average. So, within the same batch, it will take five years for people to reach Grade D,” an employee told The Indian Express.
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