GSB union rallies against board's 'interference' on lending

“We want to know what the policies of the new board are in directing the bank,” Likit Klinthanom, leader the Government Savings Bank Trade Union, said yesterday. 

Likit led more than a hundred employees in a brief rally in front of the bank’s headquarters on Phaholyothin Road.

Their symbolic protest followed a report suggesting that the bank’s board, chaired by Pannee Sathavorodom, plans to remove Lersak Chuladesa as president and chief executive officer because the board does not agree with the bank’s lending policy or its high expenditure on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

Likit said the board had disrupted the bank’s lending operations, for example requiring executives to seek its approval for loans exceeding Bt5 million.

“Such intervention has delayed many loans while thousands of cooperatives nationwide want to borrow money from the bank,” he said.

Some board members said it had not yet decided to vote on the removal of Lersak, whose term ends in July. 

Likit said the trade union would organise a rally again if the demand is not met. 

He added that after the new board was appointed late last year, the bank’s profit decreased.