There was a meeting between employee unions and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) in the presence of the Chief Labour Commissioner. However, it failed to yield any result, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Convener C H Venkatachalam said.
"We are going ahead with the strike," he said, adding that the IBA has further reduced the rate of wage hike from the proposed 17.5 per cent to 13 per cent.
At the same time, the IBA further did not concede demands on pension and appointing dependants of deceased employees on compassionate grounds, he said.
Thus, employees are forced to strike work as the IBA continues its stiff stance, he said, adding that the legitimate demands are being neglected by the managements of banks, leading to hardship for customers.
The UFBU is an umbrella body of nine bank employee unions of the country and claims to have members from public, private and foreign banks.
As many as one million employees, including officers, will participate in the strike, affecting services in about 60,000 bank branches in the country, the UFBU claimed.
Unions have called for strike on August 6 and 7 pressing for an increase in wages and another option to join the Pension Scheme.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Rajya Sabha while replying to a question said, wage revision of officers and staff of the public sector banks are due since November, 2007.
"The wage revision of officers and employees is negotiated by Indian Banks' Association (IBA) that represents the management of such banks, which have mandated it to negotiate on their behalf, with the Unions or associations representing the employees and officers," he said.
The unions present their charter of demands to IBA and thereafter several rounds of negotiations are held by IBA with unions to arrive at a settlement, he said.
Resolving the issue is a time consuming process, he said, adding "efforts are being made to arrive at a settlement."
Source : Business Standard.
Talks failed with IBA : differs with pension option and wage increase
The talks failed after the IBA further pruned its wage increase offer to 13 per cent and also made it clear that it cannot offer the existing pension scheme to those public sector bank officers and employees who had in the mid-nineties opted for provident fund as their second retirement benefit, after gratuity.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a representative body of nine unions, had urged the IBA to provide another option for about 3,00,000 employees to move from the provident fund scheme to the pension scheme.
“IBA today went back on its earlier offer and informed us that if at all an offer is to be made, it will be a reduced alternative pension scheme and cannot be the existing pension scheme. This is a major setback as we were hoping that the 2,50,000 employees and 50,000 persons who had retired will get another chance to opt for the existing pension scheme,” Mr C.H. Venkatachalam, UFBU convenor, told Business Line.
After months of negotiations, the IBA and the UFBU had agreed to appoint an actuary/consultant to arrive at the quantum of outgo to the banks if the 3 lakh people who had opted for the provident fund scheme were to be given another chance to shift to the pension scheme. The actuarial estimate of the liability stood at Rs 17,000 crore, of which the PF accumulations of these employees stood at Rs 11,000 crore.
The gap of Rs 6,000 crore had to be filled. The managements were asked to fork out Rs 4,200 crore and the employees were game to bring in additional Rs 1,800 crore. However, with the Government intervening in the wage talks, the IBA had toughened its stance on both the wage hike front as well as the pension option front, sources close to the developments said.
IBA had initially agreed to offer 17.5 per cent hike in wages, but later brought it down to 15 per cent. Now, the latest offer is for 13 per cent. The wage revision of public sector bank officers and employees is due from November 2007.
9 comments :
MOST UNFORTUNATE DECISION IT IS AN OPEN CHALLEENGE BY THE GOVT TO THE TRADE UNION . THEY ARE SETTLING THEIR SCORES WITH THE LEFT AFTER A COMFORTABLE VICTORY . ALL THE RESPONSIBLE POLITICAL LEADERS INCLUDING THE MAJOR OPPOSITION PARTY SHOULD TAKE UP THE CAUSE OF BANKMEN AND SEE THAT THEY ARE ALSO RESPCTABLBLY TREATED ON PAR WITH VI TH PAY COMMISSION PAY SCALES AND PENSION. FINANCIAL SECTOR UNREST WILL LEAD TO CHAOS WHICH SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ANY COST A DELEGATION OF A LL TRADE UNION INCLUDING LIC RBI , CENTRAL GOVT AND NON POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS SHOULD MEET THE PM FM ETC JUSTIFYING THE CAUSE OF BANK EMPLOYEES . Mrs. sonia gandhi also should intervene in the natter.
after this the UFBU has come down to a status of a beggar..
why 13%..
its better that UFBU doesnt demand anything...who knows after some talks again the demand may come down to 3%..
i hope they r not planning for a negative percentage of demand,where they ll have to pay the govt after implementation of 6th pay..the UFBU leaders should b sacked for demoralising the bank staff
for how long the bankers are treated as step brothers
for how long bankers allow themselves to be treated as step brothers
for all reasons we are government employees for wage settlement we are different
now for how long we keep going for one day two day strikes
can we not do an indefinite strike
was it not S B I which went for 7 days strike
is this example not sufficient
think again
it is no use blaming the union bearers blame yourself for electing them
very unfortunate. it's time that UFBU stop begging and backtrack from demand of begging to IBA to go back to earlier proposal of 17.5% instead it should take a stand of handsome increase such as 50% or nothing and go ahead with agitational path- the only way to have impact.
We, bank employees, are going on strike for 2 days. We will be loosing 2 days salary but are even then not sure what we will get ? Even the pending work will put more pressure on us after joining our duties.
Instead of going on strike, why do'nt we try another option, i.e. WORK-TO-RULE. We would be on our seat at 10 Am and going back at 5 pm, what so ever happens, even if the day job is completed or not ! The messenger will do his job, clerical will do his own particular job alloted to him and officials will attend to their work as per rule book. We would not bother whatever happen to public.
In this way, we would not loose our salaries and bank's / govt's job will also suffer. My dear colleagues, I just want to say that IF PUBLIC / MEDIA / GOVT WANT US TO WORK AS A BANKMAN, THEN WE WILL SHOW THEM HOW A BANKMAN WORKS. WE SHOULD BE UNITED AND SHOW THEM THAT TILL NOW THE BANK EMPLOYEES WERE WORKING AS A HUMAN BEINGS, SEEING TO IT THAT NO ONE IN PUBLIC SUFFERS BUT NOW WHEN THE SAME PUBLIC IS AGAINST BANK EMPLOYEES, THEN WE SHOULD SHOW THEM WHAT WE CAN DO EVEN WITHIN OUR LIMITATIONS.
SHAME ON GOVERNMENT ! Before Gen elections, this was the same govt. which was agreeable to many of our points and this is the same govt which has started us like a BEGGAR.
SHAME ON I B A ! Is it INDIAN BANKER'S ASSOCIATION or INDIAN BEGGARS ASSOCIATION ?
When IBA says it is Govt's wish to reduce revision to 13% and not offer pension, it is actually the IAS babus in North Block (MoF) who are saying it. The best way to treat these imcompetant and arrogant babus is to expose their corrupt deals which increase NPAs, reduce their interference in management and stop their foreign jaunts......
The main reasons for failure of wage negotition for Bankers are the Union Leaders themselve. First thing all we need to do is get rid of this Unions which are sold out to the Management.
Wage negotion should be done by a central commission (same on the lines on central Government). The role of Unions in the present context is limited merely to some Transfers/Postings of employees and nothing more than that.
are yaaro kuch to karo
We have been ill trated by all the govts it is because we feel childish happiness after getting a lollypop. We are honest, hardworking & dedicatd workforce in the country & are united as a union force also then why are we badly treated all the times? This time we want from our dear comrades to go for a all out war & take what is our justfull demand.Today a new sweeper is getting 1.5 times than our new clerks & a bank's P.O.is getting less than a primery teacher.Do our comrades feel bad? CAN WE MOVE IN THE SOCIETY KEEPING OUR HEAD HIGH? One time they(iba)say it is 17%another time 13% this way making a mockery of our leaders & employees.PLEASE GO FOR INDEFINITE STRIKE FROM 17TH AUG IF WR ARE GETTING LESS THAN OUR DEMAND.
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