This is how Raghuram Rajan earned the support of union workers at RBI

Raghuram Rajan, the governor of India’s central banking authority Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has done quite a number of changes in the bank’s performance evaluation system, while also trying to attract talent from outside the bank and introducing fellowships so that the staff can be able to build new skills.

While all these changes were accepted by the unions at RBI, it was not easy for Rajan to win over the hearts of his union workers, many of whom saw him as a foreigner who would come up with new ideas which would create problems for the employees.

However, what he turned out to be made him earn immense support from his union workers when the talks of his exit from the post began after remarks from Subramanian Swamy.

It was in a television interview that Rajan lovingly acknowledged this support.

"My unions come to me and say we fully trust you and we are going to fight hard for you. That makes me feel really good because these are the people I work with every day and who know me," he was quoted saying.

As per workers associated with these unions, it was after they got to know Rajan from 2014 to 2016 that they began to understand his ideas, which were only for RBI’s advancement.

"We were against his lateral hiring policy but later we understood that he wanted to attract the best talent in RBI and get younger and sharper people in RBI," Suryakant Mahadik, told ET. Mahadik is the general secretary at All India Reserve Bank Workers Federation, a union of Class IV workers in the central bank.

"I have known 19 of the 23 RBI governors. All have been good but Rajan was the best because of his intelligence. As a citizen of India I believed he was the best man for the job," he added.

Also read: Modi breaks silence on Raghuram Rajan's second term as RBI chief

Rajan also assured the unions that their demand for an upgrade in pensions for RBI employees who retired before 1997 would be met, and he even pushed the case to the finance ministry. Even though it has seen a little development, it was his effort that made the unions take notice of his leadership skills.

"Yes, we had some differences with him but he also heard to our point of view. For instance, he wanted to transfer the cash department to commercial banks, but we opposed it because it is an important function for the RBI. The department stayed within the central bank," said CM Paulsil, general secretary, All India RBI Officers' Association.

"No person with any self-respect would stay after what Swamy said. This is now a difficult time for the country," he added.

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