Punjab National Bank Employees refuse to accept Staff QR Code Feedback System and Mobile attendance app

Punjab National Bank Employees have refused to accept the new QR Code based Employee Feedback system and mobile app based attendance system. As per the sources, the employees are returning the QR Code to the Bank and are uninstalling the mobile attendance app.

The All India Punjab National Bank Officers’ Association (AIPNBOA) has strongly opposed the newly introduced PNB-Aagaman mobile app for employee attendance and the QR code-based customer feedback system. AIPNBOA units have written letters addressed to the Circle Head and have raised serious concerns regarding employee privacy and the practicality of the new systems.

The bank’s HR Department issued a circular dated April 12, 2025, introducing the Aagaman app for marking employee attendance using mobile phones. Around the same time, the Operations Division also sent out guidelines (dated April 15, 2025) asking for the implementation of customer feedback through QR codes, which customers can scan to rate the service given by employees.

According to the union, both of these decisions were taken without any consultation with the officers’ association. This lack of discussion has caused unrest among bank officers.

Why Is the Union Opposing?

The officers’ union has shared several reasons for rejecting these new systems:

1. Violation of Privacy:
   The Aagaman app reportedly collects sensitive information such as location, contact details, and SMS records. The union claims this violates the employees’ right to privacy.
2. Unfair Feedback System:
   The union believes that using QR codes to get customer feedback is not a fair method. For example, if a customer faces delays in updating KYC (Know Your Customer) due to system issues or internet problems, they might give negative feedback even though it’s not the fault of the employee. This could impact the employee unfairly.
3. No Response from Management:
   A previous letter dated April 21, 2025, was sent by the General Secretary of the union to the MD & CEO explaining these concerns. However, the union says no reply or clarification has been received from the management.

What Action Has Been Taken?

The matter was discussed in the Central Executive Committee meeting of the union held on April 30, 2025, in Madurai. After detailed discussions, the following decisions were taken:

• Members are advised not to use the Aagaman mobile app for marking attendance.
• Members should continue using the existing HRMS system for attendance.
• Members should not accept or use the QR code system for customer feedback.
• Those who have already downloaded the Aagaman app are advised to uninstall it immediately and return the QR code if it was issued to them.

The union has requested the management to acknowledge their letter and take corrective action. They emphasize that these new systems should not be forced on employees without proper discussion and consideration of their rights and working conditions.

Background of Controversy

Recently, Punjab National Bank has introduced QR Code based Feedback system to collect feedback of employees from customers. The bank has even printed the QR Codes and sent to Employees. The bank has asked the employees to place the QR Code infront of their desk and customers can easily scan QR and provide rating and feedback to Employees.

This new QR Code based feedback system raised protest from Employees who said that this new feedback method is not beneficial. The employees said Bank has less staff, poor IT infrastructure which will subsequently lead to more complaints against staff.

Apart from this, PNB has also launched a new mobile app based attendance system. This app – ‘PNB Aagman’ allows Employees to mark attendance based on their location. The app uses the location services of employees and employees can mark attendance only when they are at their office location. This app also met with criticism and employees said that the Bank Management is trying to track the employees.

The app uses location services and employees are not told where the data of this app would be stored and how the data will be processed. This has raised severe privacy concerns for employees. Employees say that already Bank is using biometric attendance system and employees mark attendance via biometric device installed in office computer. The system is working fine and there was no need to spend money on new mobile app.

The PNB Bank Management wants to impose both (QR Code Feedback system and PNB Aagman Mobile attandance app) on Employees but the employees are not ready for it. Let’s see what happens next.