UCO Bank's plan to stop salary of laggards rejected

KOLKATA: The loss-making UCO Bank appears desperate in its turnaround quest. In a bizarre note to the personnel services department, one of the bank's zonal heads had requested suspension of salary payments to 11 branches on grounds of non-performance.

The proposal was promptly shot down by the management, but not before it created enough noise and caused panic. There is no such provision to stop monthly pay-cheques due to non-performance in state-run banks, where salaries and increments are fixed through a bipartite settlement between the managements and staff unions.

UCO Bank has been under Reserve Bank of India's prompt corrective action plan for making net losses for two successive financial years amid severe stress on asset quality. The bank's net losses widened to Rs 663 crore in the first quarter to June 30, while asset quality worsened to 19.87 per cent of gross advances. The plan was to stop salaries in 11 key Kolkata branches that failed to deliver on key parameters such as lending and recovery of sticky loans.

ET has learnt that the management has issued a note saying that stoppage of salary of all staff in these 11 branches may not be prudent.