With both sides making compromises, a pact is likely at the Feb first week talks
Kochi, January 21:
The nearly two-year-old stand-off between bank
managements and bank employee unions over revision of wage agreement
will, if all goes well, come to an end in a fortnight, sources indicate.
The deferment of the continuous four-day national
strike, scheduled to begin on January 21, is considered a positive
indication that the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the United Forum
of Bank Unions (UFBU) are heading for an agreement, sources say.
Informal assurance
The strike, which would have resulted in an effective
shutdown of the banking industry for a week, was put on hold on an
informal assurance from the IBA that it would marginally improve its
last offer of 12.5 per cent increase in bank employees’ salaries.
Both sides have made compromises on many of the other
demands, such as medical benefits. The wage increase rate is the only
stumbling block before an agreement now.
Rajiv Rishi, Chairman of the IBA negotiating team, who
is also the CMD of Central Bank of India, had told the UFBU that the
next round of negotiations would be held in the first week of February. A
union official told BusinessLine that they expected the talks to be held mostly on February 3.
IBA meeting
The IBA has called a meeting of its
managing committee for January 31. The meeting, which will be attended
by the CMDs of most banks, is expected to give the IBA the go-ahead for
improving the offer of wage rise from the latest offer of 12.5 per cent.
However, the unions are not expecting a big jump in the offer.
The IBA, the bank managements, the Centre and bank
employee unions are all not for continuing the wage negotiations that
have been going on for more than a year and ahalf.
The unions, which met on Monday evening, however,
decided that if the negotiations did not reach their logical end in the
first week of February, they would go in for a long continuous national
strike.
(This article was published on January 21, 2015)
