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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Government betrayed Bank Employees

CHANDIGARH: The Government has betrayed 10 lacks bank employees of the country. Bank employees wage revision was due in November, 2007.In the last two year number of negotiation meetings took place.

On 9th June IBA offered 17.5% wage revision and one more option of pension to bank employees. Unions were demanding 20% plus for wage revision and one more option of pension. First time in the history of banking and wage negotiations Govt. reduced their offer from 17.5% to 15 and then 13%.

After observing two days strike on 6th and 7th August, 2009 Govt. restored their offer of 17.5% but put some more conditions like implementation of New Pension Scheme from 1.4.2010 for one more option of Pension Unions opposed it. In the last round of negotiation held on 24th September, 2009 IBA brought some more management issues like outsourcing and performance linked wages which were also rejected by the unions. Unions also protested against the IBA’s demand for sharing of deficit in Pension Fund during the next wage revision and thereafter no meeting took place.

Before Deepawali Govt. through Electronic and Print media gave the signal that they will settle the issues of bank employees and they will get wage revision before Deepawali. Through these signals Govt. took advantage in elections in three States. But no real efforts were made by the Govt. to settle the issues.

Sharing of deficit in Pension Fund during the next wage revision issue is pending with the Finance ministry. NOBW demands that Govt. should keep its word and settle the issues.

Bankers may need to wait a little longer for wage hike

KOLKATA: There is always a slip between the cup and lip, as they say. And for nearly eight lakh bank officers and employees waiting for their five-yearly wage hike, the gap may not be bridged in a hurry. This is even as the Indian Banks Association(IBA) and United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have agreed upon a 17.5% wage hike.

But, there seems a devil hiding in the details of the proposed option to join the pension scheme for those who are out of the pension net currently. Issues like accounting for the cost of pension and its cost-sharing arrangement between bank management and employees have cropped up which is delaying the entire negotiation process. The wage revision is due from November 2007.

For starters, IBA and UFBU have now agreed upon a 17.5% wage hike over the establishment expenses of banks as on March 31, 2007. IBA, the body for the bank management, has also in principle agreed to offer the pension option to those who did not opt for it in 1993. Around 2.66 lakh public sector bank employees
do not get monthly pension.

Even after agreeing on the second pension, IBA has put fresh conditions. It now wants employees to share a burden for building up the pension corpus. Then, the proposed introduction of New Pension Scheme (NPS) and variable pay are still need to be resolved, said All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) president Rajen Nagar. AIBEA is the largest bank union.

Top bankers who are part of the wage negotiation did not want to officially comment at this juncture. Yet, they have confirmed that IBA has agreed in principle to offer the second option for pension.

For the second pension option, banks (barring SBI) will have to shell out an additional Rs 6,000 crore collectively. IBA is also likely to consider pension option for bankers who retired before March 31, 2008 and are out of the purview of pension scheme.

Although, both the parties have in principle agreed to the core issues, some details are yet to be worked out, said State Bank of India’s employee’s association s general secretary for Bengal circle, Shyamal Karmakar. However, this pension issue does not really bother SBI employees who are always entitled to pensions.

However, UFBU -- the umbrella organisation for nine leading bank unions -- is not also comfortable with the IBA s proposal to introduce NPS for bankers joining after April 2010. We want the old pension scheme to continue till October 31, 2012. We have committed that unions will discuss the issue of NPS after this. Mr Nagar said. Incidentally, the ninth bipartite settlement will be valid till October 31, 2012.

We are also against the concept of variable pay. It deteriorates performance rather than improving it, Mr Nagar opined.