MUMBAI, August 25: The All India Standard Chartered Bank Employees Federation has called for a nationwide strike by the bank employees on Wednesday. This is the first time in 50 years the bank's workers are launching an agitation for an individual cause.Addressing a press conference, the union members accused the management of trying to rob them of their job in the bank in the name of modernisation. The bank is, according to the members, one of the most technically advanced ones in the country. Computerisation has led to the retrenchment of 600 workers across the country, the union says adding that 600 more are on their way out. ``The voluntary retirement scheme is indirectly a compulsory one,'' said M S Dawood, the general secretary of the union.He expressed concern over employing of officers on contract basis. ``Frauds are committed by such officers who have no responsibility toward the bank,'' he added. The bank was allegedly involved in the securities scam and also the money laundering scam.Dawood also alleged that the management had asked the employees to surrender their casual and sick leaves on January 1 every year and expected them to work without a day's off. Besides this, the management has supposedly put the agreements with the employees on hold.The union has written to the bank's head office in London to send a fact-finding team to India and sort out the problems. Meanwhile, the United Forum of Bank Unions, to which the Standard Chartered bank union is affiliated, has also declared strike on August 28 and 29.
