Bank Wage revision talks 11th B.P.S.- 1st Meeting: Feedback by AIBOA & UFBU

ALL  INDIA  BANK  OFFICERS’  ASSOCIATION   

May 2, 2017

A meeting of the representatives of the nine unions was held at Overseas Branch SBI, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai to share the concern of the developments in the Industry and also the direct threat of destabilising the Public Sector Bank by the utterances of the responsible persons who are expected to control the financial system in the country independently. A quick review was also undertaken pertaining to the impending exercise to be handled after the meeting. 

2.         In the background of the Government of India advising the Banks to commence and conclude the talks on revision of wages for the workforce implementable with effect from 1st November 2017, an introductory meeting to set the tone for the said exercise was initiated by IBA today at Mumbai. The IBA team was led by Shri. Rajeev Rishi, Chairman IBA, (CBI), Ms.Arundhati  Bhattacharya, Chairman SBI, Shri.Arun Tiwari, CMD UBI,  Shri.Ashwani Kumar, CMD Dena Bank, Mr.R.K.Takkar, MD &CEO, UCO, Chairman, Negotiating Committee, Shri.Rakesh Sharma MD & CEO, Canara Bank, Smt.Usha Ananthasubramanian, MD & CEO, PNB, Shri. P.S.Jayakumar MD & CEO, BOB, Shri.Prashant Kumar, DMD & CDO, SBI, Shri.Shyam Srinivasan, MD & CEO, Federal Bank, Shri.V.G.Kannan CEO, IBA,  and Shri. K.S.Chauhan, Senior Vice President HR & IR,  IBA. The nine union’s representatives were present in the meeting. Our organisation was represented by the undersigned.

3.         The chairman IBA, while initiating the dialogue, he recalled the benefits accrued to the workforce in the 9th and 10th Bipartite Viz:  Pension option, 2 Saturdays off, Insurance backed hospitalisation scheme, and also called upon to exercise restraint in the interactions as well as in the coverage in print media etc. He was expressing that the present exercise undertaken, hopefully, to be concluded prior to Deepavali festival. IBA Negotiating team shall discuss the wage revision for officers’ upto Scale III only. The Chairman SBI, who covered in her address the status of the Public Sector Banks, NPAs, challenges to be met urgently as other players entering in the arena of Banking, the sluggish credit growth, stiff competition in the product development and delivery system, need to develop evolution of new method of banking practices etc, ultimately we continue to remain as one team at the conclusion of this exercise.

4.         In response to the opening remarks of IBA officials, the representatives of the unions made it clear that while we are ready to cooperate to complete the exercise in a time bound manner, the restriction  to negotiate up-to Scale III needs to be reconsidered, as the past joint notes covered all  the seven scales, need to retain the young workforce by offering comparable wage increase with other sectors, steps to initiate to conclude the pending items of the previous COD, considering the remaining 2 Saturdays in a month as holidays and not to link the present health of the Industry with the wage talks.

5.         After the meeting with IBA team, nine unions representatives, met again, to draw the plan of action of protest against the authorities of RBI. The programmes are being worked out to echo the collective voice of dissent to the owner of the financial system, seeking an answer on the issue of de-privatising the Public Sector Banks and also on consolidation of the Banks. Depending upon the response from the authorities further steps will be initiated including direct action exclusively on this issue by the nine unions, it was decided.

Date : 03.05.2017

All our unions and members are aware that our present wage revision settlement for employees and officers will come to an end by October, 2017 and hence the next wage accord has to commence from 1st November, 2017.

Since negotiations are taking unduly long time to arrive at the final settlement, we have been desiring timely settlement.

 Government had also advised the IBA and Banks to complete the negotiations early and commence the settlement from the due date i.e. 1-11-2017.

Hence we have been asking the IBA to commence the negotiations early and this was one of the prominent demands in our All India strike on 28th February, 2017.  Earlier to that we had submitted the broad summary of our common demands for employees and officers respectively.

In this background, Indian Banks Association had invited UFBU for commencing the negotiations and accordingly the meeting was held yesterday i.e. on 2-5-2017 at IBA Office in Mumbai.

IBA was represented by its Chairman Shri Rajeev Rishi, CMD, Central Bank of India, Mrs. Arundhathi Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI, Shri Arun Tewari, CMD,  Union Bank of India,  Shri Ashwinikumar, CMD, Dena Bank, Shri R K Takkar,  MD, UCO Bank, Mrs.  Usha Subramanian,  MD, PNB, Shri Shyam Srinivasan, MD, Federal Bank, Shri,  P S Jayakumar, MD, Bank of Baroda and Shri Rakesh Sharma, MD, Canara Bank.

UFBU was represented by leaders of our 9 constituent unions in the discussion.

In his opening remarks, Shri Rajeev Rishi observed that bilateralism has been the hallmark in the banking industry for the past 50 years when successive bipartite settlements have been signed.  He particularly referred to the 9th BPS and 10th BPS under which benefits like one more option for pension,  Full Day Off on 2 Saturdays in a month, medical insurance scheme for employees and retirees, etc. were achieved due to the collective efforts of the management and the unions.

 He urged upon the unions to keep the present health of the Banks and their constraints in mind while negotiating the demands and help to conclude the Settlement early, preferably before Diwali festival this year.

He informed that since some of the Banks have given mandate to IBA for negotiations would be confined only upto Scale III Officers.

He further informed that IBA has set up a Negotiating Committee as under:

Shri  R K Takkar, MD, UCO Bank – Chairman

Shri. Rakesh Sharma, MD, Canara Bank,

Smt. Usha Subramanian, MD, PNB

Shri P S Jayakumar, MD, Bank of Baroda

Shri Prashant Kumar, Dy.MD, SBI

Shri Shyam Srinivasan, MD, Federal Bank

Responding to the observations of the IBA, from our side, we thanked the IBA for initiating the process of negotiations and assured that we shall extend our best possible co-operation to conclude the settlement as early as possible and suggested holding of regular and continuous meetings for this purpose.

We also reiterated our commitment to bipartism and settling the demands amicably through mutual discussions.

 We also conveyed to the IBA that given the increasing stress and heavy workload under which employees and officers are working in the Banks, they deserve satisfactory wage revision and improvement in their service conditions.

We also informed the IBA that our Unions are equally conscious and concerned about the present challenges faced by the Banks and would be willing to work with the managements to overcome these challenges successfully.

We strongly conveyed to the IBA that the negotiations in respect of officers should not be restricted upto Scale III and must cover upto Scale VII as hitherto.

In the conclusion, it was decided that the Negotiating Committee will shortly fix up the date for starting the negotiations when formal talks on our demands will commence.  We shall keep our unions and members informed of further developments.