By C H Venkatachalam
The just-concluded two-day bank strike on January 31 and February 1, 2020, as per the reports reaching AIBEA headquarters, was a resounding success. Let me take this opportunity first of all to congratulate all our unions and members for this splendid unity and effective implementation of the strike call.
The strike has received due attention and coverage from the press and media, which have covered our strike action in detail. The strike has paralysed the normal banking activities in a very big way and banking activities were hugely affected. Clearance of cheques was also affected in the three National Clearing Grids in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
There has been a very large and enthusiastic participation of our members, particularly the younger generation of employees in the rallies, processions and demonstrations. This is a befitting reply to all the cynical propaganda against the young employees that they are not ready for strike actions. This gives us the confidence that the trade union movement in the banking industry will go from strength to strength in the days to come.
The two-day strike action is the culmination of our first phase of the agitation programme. Members are aware that we are fighting for our 12-point charter of demands as contained in our strike notice with the main demand to expedite the wage revision settlement, which is due from November, 2017. The bank employees deserve a fair and satisfactory wage revision and the settlement to be reached without delay.
We sincerely hope that the IBA and government will read the writing on the wall along with the total success of the strike, understand our resentment and come forward to conclude the settlement expeditiously.
The unions readily accepted the suggestion made by the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) at the conciliation meeting held in Delhi. Thereafter, as advised by the CLC, IBA invited United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) for a round of bipartite meeting at Mumbai on January 30. The IBA team was headed by Union Bank of India MD & CEO Rajkiran Rai G, chairman of the Negotiating Committee. All the constituent unions were present in the discussions and the IBA made the following offers:
- After our explaining the demands of our strike notice, and after a lot of discussions, IBA came with an offer 13 per cent hike in pay-slip cost that is Rs 7,108 crores provided the unions we agree to defer the proposed two-day days strike.
- IBA stated that this hike in pay-slip cost would involve a total cost of Rs 12,391 crores if superannuation cost is taken into account.
On the unions’ rejecting this offer, the IBA increased the offer to 13.5 per cent. They also informed that the demand for additional loading and merger of special allowance with basic pay can be considered provided the same can fit into the overall costs. Regarding the five-day banking, IBA informed that even though they are not in favour of it, they can have an open mind if other stakeholders also agree to the same.
Further on improvement in family pension, IBA reiterated that the issue stands referred to the government and a favourable decision is expected. On our demand for updation of pension, IBA stated that it may not be possible to go for the same in one go in view of the huge cost involved but would be willing to look at it favourably by beginning to cover the retirees of some earlier settlement periods by working out the same within some affordable cost. On scrapping of NPS for post-2010 employees, IBA informed that the same is not in their purview as the scheme is in view of government’s policy.
The IBA also appealed to the unions to defer the strike.
After mutual consultation with the constituent union representatives present in the discussions, the UFBU conveyed to the IBA that if the offer is improved to 15 per cent, we can consider deferment of the two-day strike action and sort out the remaining issues in further rounds of negotiations. IBA regretted their inability to improve their offer and hence the discussions ended at this stage and hence UFBU decided to go ahead with the strike.
After we dispersed from the IBA meeting, there was again an invitation from the IBA chairman Rajneesh Kumar, also chairman of SBI, to meet him for further discussions in his office in SBI Corporate Centre. Hence the employees’ representatives reassembled and attended the meeting.
During this meeting, the IBA chairman offered as under:
- Pay-slip hike of 15 per cent inclusive of the cost outgo on account of PL encashment of 5-7 days per year as offered in the last round of discussions.
- Alternatively, the 15 per cent hike in cost (Rs 7,900 crores) can be taken entirely in pay-slip components in which case the PL encashment facility will not be available.
He further stated that looking to heavy impacting cost on superannuation benefits, merger of special allowance and loading more than two per cent would not be possible. He also informed that looking at the present banking scenario and customer requirements and having regard to the present number of bank holidays, etc, it would not be possible to agree to our demand for five days banking.
After our persuasion and representation, he agreed that merger of special allowance and additional loading can be considered and pay scales can be restructured within the mutually agreed overall cost. We also insisted that our demand for five-day banking should not be declined and hence it was understood that this demand would be kept open for further discussion. With this, the IBA again repeated its appeal to defer our strike. Since this was not acceptable to the unions, we could not defer the strike. (IPA Service)
The writer is General Secretary, AIBEA
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