According to an industry body, Indian banks have lost more than a thousand employees and many more are infected, in the second wave of the Covid-19 crisis across the country.
On Saturday S. Nagarajan, general secretary of the All India Bank Officers’ Association told Bloomberg News over the phone, “We have lost more than 1,000 colleagues already. Bank employees are frontline workers and the virus is affecting them.”
With the outbreak of increasing corona infections, the bulk of Indian states are in a lockdown with strict stay-at-home orders. But the banking sector is partially exempt from the lockdown orders and slotted as an essential service. Lenders are allowed in some cases to call as much as 50% of their workforce in bank branches to avoid any disruption in banking services.
C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association said that 1,200 employees had died due to the virus. “Not all banks are forthcoming in sharing the details and compensation policies for the families of those who died due to this virus,” said Venkatachalam.
On Friday Debasish Panda, a senior Federal Government official wrote to state authorities urging them to vaccinate bank and insurance employees against Covid on a priority basis, reported PTI.
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