{"id":2732,"date":"2026-10-17T08:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/10\/17\/finance-minister-employee-concerns-idbi-disinvestment\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T08:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:32:33","slug":"finance-minister-employee-concerns-idbi-disinvestment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/10\/17\/finance-minister-employee-concerns-idbi-disinvestment\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance Minister says employee concerns addressed in IDBI Bank disinvestment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"9fece8afa224fd09e54b043d0febfb58\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- NR ATF -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8898941184964366\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4839033563\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Parliament that the legitimate concerns of existing IDBI Bank employees and other stakeholders have been duly addressed through specific provisions incorporated in the Share Purchase Agreement governing the bank&#8217;s proposed disinvestment.<\/p>\n<p>Chaudhary made the statement in reply to an un\u2011starred question raised in the Lok Sabha by MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian. The question sought an update on the status of the bank\u2019s privatisation, asked whether the government had undertaken any assessment of the impact on bank officers, and inquired if any discussions had been planned with employees or their representatives.<\/p>\n<p>According to the minister, the disinvestment process began with the publication of a Preliminary Information Memorandum on 7 October 2022, inviting expressions of interest (EoI) from potential bidders. The memorandum triggered the receipt of multiple EoIs, all of which are now undergoing due\u2011diligence. That due\u2011diligence is proceeding only after security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs and a &#8220;fit and proper&#8221; evaluation by the Reserve Bank of India.<\/p>\n<p>The minister\u2019s response also highlighted that the Share Purchase Agreement contains clauses designed to safeguard employee interests, though the exact nature of those clauses was not disclosed in the parliamentary reply.<\/p>\n<h2>Employee forum disputes government\u2019s claim<\/h2>\n<p>The United Forum of IDBI Officers and Employees, which represents roughly 11,900 officers and 400 work\u2011men employees, publicly rejected the government\u2019s narrative. The forum described a statement by Arunish Chawla, Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), which claimed that the department had discussed the disinvestment with employee associations, as a &#8220;big lie.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a press release, the United Forum said it was never consulted while the draft Share Purchase Agreement was being prepared or finalised, and that no draft was ever shared with its members. The forum\u2019s representatives characterised the alleged discussion as a fabrication, asserting that the department\u2019s claim was without basis.<\/p>\n<h2>Protests, strikes and conciliation attempts<\/h2>\n<p>Leaders of the United Forum, including Convenor Devidas\u202fTuljapurkar and Joint Convenors Vithal\u202fKoteswara\u202fRao and Ratnakar\u202fWankhade, detailed a series of protests undertaken to oppose the sale of IDBI Bank to private or foreign entities. They reported organising seven dharnas at Jantar\u202fMantar in Delhi, submitting a memorandum to Secretary\u202fChawla opposing the sale on grounds that it would run counter to national interests and employee welfare.<\/p>\n<p>The forum also coordinated a one\u2011day nationwide strike on 11 August 2025, describing it as a collective expression of dissent. Following the strike, a series of conciliation meetings were held before the Assistant Labour Commissioner (Central) and the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in Mumbai during 2025 and 2026. In each meeting, DIPAM officials allegedly reiterated that the strategic disinvestment was a policy decision of the Government of India and a confidential process, declining to engage directly with the employee representatives.<\/p>\n<p>In a separate communication dated the previous month, a senior DIPAM official wrote to the Assistant Labour Commissioner\u2011C (III), Mumbai, emphasizing that the disinvestment is a confidential transaction containing price\u2011sensitive information comparable to any listed\u2011company sale. The official warned that any public disclosure of the terms would breach confidentiality regulations and jeopardise the entire bidding process.<\/p>\n<p>DIPAM further characterised the employee forum\u2019s recourse to the conciliation mechanism as an instance of &#8220;forum\u2011shopping,&#8221; noting that a similar plea is pending before the Supreme Court and another before the Mumbai High Court. The department indicated that judicial clarification on the matter is still awaited.<\/p>\n<p>While the finance ministry maintains that employee concerns have been incorporated into the transaction framework, the United Forum continues to challenge the adequacy of those measures, insisting that it was excluded from critical discussions and that the disinvestment threatens both staff security and broader national interests.<\/p>\n<p>The dispute remains unresolved as the government proceeds with the confidentiality\u2011bound bidding process, and employee groups persist in seeking legal and public avenues to voice their opposition.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary says provisions in the IDBI Bank Share Purchase Agreement address employee worries, while employee groups dispute the government&#8217;s claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[3020,3018,3019,2529,3017],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dipam","tag-disinvestment","tag-employee-concerns","tag-government","tag-idbi-bank","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}