The State Bank of India VRS

The conditions laid down by the management faced strong criticism from the officers who had opted for the VRS, but who could not meet the prescribed criteria. They alleged that the bank was practicing discrimination in implementation of the scheme and that no other banks had implemented such policies and denied the opportunity of VRS to officers who were willing to avail the scheme.

Media reports also called SBI's decision to restrict the VRS as arbitrary, discriminatory and belying the voluntary character of the scheme. Unions argued that if the bank was so particular that only 10% of its staff leave under the VRS, it could have closed the scheme immediately after the required number of applications were received. The unions also argued that 35,000 applications (14% of the total workforce) could not be considered high when compared to the response received by other public sector banks such as Syndicate Bank (22%) and Punjab & Sind Bank (19%), where all the applications that were received were also accepted for VRS. The officers who were denied the VRS formed an action group in March 2001. They claimed that SBI had violated the guidelines of the Government and the Indian Banks Association.