Sometimes decisions that seem well-intentioned can have another greyish side and can draw flack of all those impacted. A similar incident happened at one of the public sector banks which did not go down well with the employees of the organization. And what happens when something is not accepted by a large chunk of people, they revolt and push back the authority. Union Bank of India certainly had a good taste of this.
Union Bank of India Pushes for dress code during Navaratri, Employees Push Back
Union Bank of India was forced to withdraw a dress code circular for its employees for the Navratri celebrations after a strong protest from the bank employees’ union. It was also subjected to censure on social media.
The circular, titled “Navratri Celebration and Dress Code”, was issued by AR Raghavendra, general manager, Digitization Department of the Union Bank Of India’s central office in Mumbai.
The bank had planned a Navratri celebration dress code to be followed between October 7-15. It had also imposed a fine of ? 200 if rules were not followed.
The circular also mandated a daily group photograph of all employees. The colors advised by the circular ranged from yellow, green, orange, white, royal blue, pink, purple, grey, red for the nine days of festivities.
The employees’ federation give a strong response
The employees’ federation argued, issuing an “official instruction for celebrating a religious festival in office, fixing dress code and imposition of penalty is not a routine official matter of digitization department”.
The federation also emphasized that the order runs counter to the spirit of secularism.
“Navratri is a religious festival and that should be observed and celebrated privately and not officially in a public sector bank that maintains high esteem towards a secular fabric of our society. Celebration of any festival is a voluntary phenomenon that has no room for any instruction/coercion far to speak of imposition of any penalty,” the All India Union Bank Employees Federation said in a letter to the Union Bank of India.
“This has never happened in the 100 years’ history of the bank,” the letter further read.
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