Pay for it

The relief over the SBI strike ending is so widespread 8212; something the government is acutely conscious of 8212; that the most important implication of the week long industrial action will receive no attention at all. Especially because it is counter-intuitive. SBI employees, including its officers, have been panned for putting their interests far ahead of that of the customers and the banking system. But how exactly has the government 8212; SBI8217;s overwhelmingly major shareholder 8212; looked after employees8217; interests? Look at it this way, had employees been allowed to benefit from the chunks of SBI shares that have been sold, would they have wrapped up their pension demands in the red flag of strike action? Most unlikely.

SBI8217;s salaries are, like those in most government organisations, quite low compared to equivalent private sector compensation. But SBI is not your typical struggling government bank. If it had been, the strike wouldn8217;t have caused such disruption. Of course, the government should have long abandoned the system of rough sectoral parity for public sector bank salaries 8212; employees of better banks should be paid more. But no attempt has been made to get around this union inspired false egalitarianism either. Allowing SBI employees to monetarily benefit from its equity sale would have addressed the issue of poor compensation and bought a big guarantee for responsible employee conduct.

This lesson, in fact, applies to all public sector organisations that do well in the market and to government jobs in general. This newspaper has strongly advocated the need for a sharp upward revision of government salaries 8212; competitive compensation and competitive work practices should go hand in hand. The government tends to be a worse employer than the so-called profit driven private sector. This is an irony lost on both the right and the left. Since large-scale privatisation of key government organisations are not on the political agenda, and probably won8217;t be for some time now, it is imperative the compensation-motivation-obligation issue be given a close look. Not every strike can be bought off, as the SBI strike was. Not every strike should be bought off. That sends a terrible signal to militant unionism. But government employees can8217;t be expected to always forget what the market is delivering around them.