By
C H Venkatahalam
The
bank employees of the country are planning actions against the government policies in the bipartite negotiations for a new wage
agreement in the banking industry as also the moves for the privatization of
the banks and amalgamation of the three public sector banks. The United Forum of Bank Unions led by AIBEA have decided to observe
strike on December 26 in all banks of
the country protesting against the proposed amalgamation of three public sector
banks-Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank.
After
the last round of discussions held on October 12, 2018, there was another round
of Bipartite Talks between IBA and UFBU on November 30, 2018 in Mumbai. IBA
team was led by Rajkiran Rai G, (MD and CEO of Union Bank of India), also
chairman of the Negotiating Committee of IBA.
UFBU
was represented by leaders of all the nine constituent unions, including C H
Venkatachalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employees Association, the
largest bank union and leaders of AIBOC, NCBE, BEFI, AIBOA, INBEF, INBOC, NOBW
and NOBO took part in the discussions.
Picking
up the thread from the discussions of the last round of discussions wherein
UFBU had urged upon the IBA to improve their offer of six percent hike in the
cost of payslip components, IBA revised their offer and increased their offer
to eight percent instead of six percent offered earlier. Payslip components
relates to salary paid in cash like Basic Pay, DA, House Rent Allowance, etc.
and does not include cost of PF, Gratuity, Pension, Medical insurance premium
paid by the Banks, cost of Leave Travel Concessions, etc.
IBA
also reiterated their formula of further wage increase over and above their
offer of eight percent based on their proposal of wage hike linked to annual
increase in Operating Profit and on Return on Assets of the Banks. While
welcoming their improved offer of eight percent, UFBU stated that differential
wage increase based profits of each Bank is not acceptable and that the wage
revision in the Banks should be uniform as has been hitherto from 1948 when the
first National Wage Award was given by Justice Sen. In all the Bipartite
Settlements from first BPS in 1966 to 10th BPS in 2015, wages have been uniform
in all Banks irrespective of annual profits of Banks.
United
Forum also further stated that IBA’s revised offer of eight percent was far
below the expectations looking to present cost of living, rate of inflation,
erosion in real wage, enormous increase in workload on account of lack of
adequate recruitment, etc. Hence UFBU urged upon the IBA to further revise
their offer substantially to an acceptable level.
UFBU
further stated that wage revision for officers should cover all officers from
Scale I upto Scale VII and not from Scale I to III as proposed by IBA. IBA
expressed their limitations in this regard as some of the Banks like SBI, PNB,
Union Bank, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank have given them mandate only
upto Scale III officers. UFBU insisted IBA to find an amicable solution to this
important issue.
UFBU
has requested the IBA to hold further discussions at the earliest to take the
negotiations forward and to conclude the settlement at the earliest. IBA
informed that they are also eager to finish the negotiations at the earliest.
Regarding
the proposed amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank, the
meeting noted that the Government and the concerned Banks were moving ahead
with their decision and hence it was decided to give the call for observing All
India Strike on December 26, 2018. All nine unions under UFBU will participate
in this strike call.
All
India Bank Employees Association announced their decision that bank employees
under AIBEA would join the National General also Strike on January 8-9, 2018 to
oppose the anti-people economic policies and anti-worker labour policies of the
Central Government as per the call of National Trade Union Convention. (IPA Service)
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