HSBC bank had failed to submit the necessary documents to Provident Fund office hence Surve was unable to claim his pension.
Rajnish Surve an ex-employee of HSBC Bank Ltd and his seventeen ex- colleagues had sent a show cause notice to the bank for irregularities in disbursing pension amount due to him under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). Initially, Surve and his ex-colleagues were admitted to the BBME Employees Family Pension Scheme 1971 (MH/BAN/6740) which subsequently came to be amended through an ordinance to Employees Pension Scheme 1995 w.e.f 16th November 1995. Though the ordinance came to be issued in the year 1996 the employer bank did not make any attempts to inform its employees to enrol their names in the new schemes by furnishing enrolment forms.
In the year 2005, the bank had issued letters to certain employees individually who had opted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme informing them to fill and submit enclosed forms. Though it was a statutory obligation on the part of the bank to enrol each and every employee under the scheme, forms along with the letters were issued to certain employees only after lapse of 10 years. The concerned employees had opted for the age of commencement of family pension as offered under the scheme and were expecting the commencement of the same at the age as opted for but surprisingly the monthly pension did not commence at the relevant age. When Surve had inquired with the concerned Provident Fund office he learnt that his employer had failed to submit the necessary documents to the institution and hence he was unable to claim his pension.
Rajnish Surve said, “If the incumbent government is concerned about black money then why they have not taken any action against HSBC? I had opted for voluntary retirement from HSBC in the year 2003 and had received a letter from the bank informing me about the pension and ROC amount payable to me.”
Surve also had forwarded an email to Stuart Gulliver, CEO HSBC Group and Douglas Flint, Group Chairman to inquire about this issue. He received reply from Douglas Flint on 18 Jan 2017 mentioning, “I am very sorry that you’ve had to contact me for your pension arrangements. The senior manager within HSBC India will respond to you at the earliest.” However Surve has not received any response from the bank till date. When Surve had contacted Stuart Gulliver he was unwilling to resolve this issue.
Surve said, “Mr. V. Todi had passed away in October 2013 and outstanding dues have been claimed by his nominees. I am very much sure that my nominee may not be able to claim dues after my death.”
