STATE BANK OF INDIA FAILS TO PAY GRATUITY TO SCALE I OFFICER -
BUT ASSISTANT LABOUR COMMISSIONER [CENTRAL] HUBLI DIRECT SBI TO PAY GRATUITY WITH INTEREST
BUT ASSISTANT LABOUR COMMISSIONER [CENTRAL] HUBLI DIRECT SBI TO PAY GRATUITY WITH INTEREST
State
Bank of India officials’ denying gratuity to an officer in Scale I, on
the ground that, officer is dismissed is held as not legal, fair and
just by the Assistant Labour Commissioner [Central], Government of
India, Ministry of Labour, Hubli Mr.V.M.Hallur and he directed the SBI
to pay the gratuity to the officer employee with interest at 10 perceent from the date of dismissal to the date of payment.
Shashikant
Kulkarni, Officer was dismissed while working at Chincholli branch,
Gulbarga District on certain allegations and the said dismissal is not
accepted by the officer and he challenged the same in High Court of
Karnataka, which is pending. Kulkarni’s request for payment of gratuity
due to him is turned down by the officials of the bank, stating that, no
dismissed officers of the bank is entitled for gratuity.
The
denial of gratuity to him was challenged by Kulkarni before ALC
[C],Hubli, who is the controlling authority under Payment of Gratuity
Act, 1972 and he was represented by M. Rama Rao.
After
hearing the case an order was passed on 1-5-2017 by ALC [C] directing
the bank to pay gratuity of Rs.6,51,985-00 with interest at 10 p.c.p.a.
from 18-7-2012 up to the date of payment. The total amount with interest
up to now comes to about Rs.9.77 lakhs.
It
is interesting to note from the records obtained from the bank under
RTI Act that, certain officials of the bank have ignored the legal
opinion expressed by their own legal department that, the denial of
gratuity will not succeed on the ground of dismissal and contested the
case with bank’s name, image, money, time and lost the case to satisfy
their ego and to harass Kulkarni officer.
Kulkarni suffered due to the malafide actions of certain officials of the bank.
Kulkarni suffered due to the malafide actions of certain officials of the bank.
Now,
it is for the world’s biggest bank to recover the expenses incurred by
the bank for the payment made to their advocate, expenses incurred in
conducting the case, man days lost by the bank, from the officers
responsible for creating the litigation against an poor officer, who is
under illegal dismissal.
The
bank has also not paid the provident fund of Kulkarni till date, in
spite of his requests. Withholding provident fund of an employee is
criminal breach of trust punishable with imprisonment. Now, we have to
see whether the bank officials wait for filing a criminal case by
Kulkarni against bank Chairman for criminal breach of trust or pay the
provident fund dues to the officer early to avoid further uncalled for
litigation
Regards,
E.R.Iyer
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