SERVICE CONDITION OF BANK EMPLOYEES FROM FACE BOOK FW ERI BOI
Our young Bank Employees must know and always keep in mind that service conditions of Bank Employees are governed by Sastry Award as modified by Desai Award and subsequent Bipartite Settlements. These days most debated point is CPC vs BPS or Central Government Employees vs Bank Employees. While most Bank Employees argue for CPC, Senior Leaders and their supporters keep advocating BPS. Now amidst debate for 11th BPS which has blown because of Notification issued by Department of Financial Services to all chief executives directing them to initiate the process, we may examine the provisions of Awards in the matter of Wage Determination and Wage Fixation :
"We can draw helpful comparisons between wages in the major banks and those in small banks, between banks on the one hand and certain industries on the other between the bank awards and the awards in insurance companies, oil companies and textile companies. The rates of pay in certain departments of Government such as the Posts & Telegraphs and in State Governments will also furnish material for the construction of a pay scale for the bank workmen. Above all we have the report of the Central Pay Commission which is now considered an authoritative and useful guide to problems relating to wage determination at least among Government employees. There are several affinities between bank workmen and Government clerks, bank subordinates and Government menials. The Central Pay Commission had before them the very same clerical class and the class below it. Mr. Vimadaial developed the industry-cum-region principle with great force and wealth of illustration from recent cases."
Para 252 of Sastry Award
"n matters of education, intelligence, social needs, family responsibilities, standards of living and outlook on life there is a fair degree of similarity between the clerks that work in a bank and those that work in a Government department. The Government, it is said, has to be an ideal employer and treat the employees fairly and with due regard to their human needs. The Government, unlike the banker or the manufacture, is not wholly dependent upon periodical returns from the sale of goods or services. Government's income is largely drawn from taxes and it is a vaguely indefinite fund susceptible of indefinite increase Though there is some element of truth in these considerations the Government has to think in terms of national income, national outlay and what the country can reasonably afford to pay its workers. In Government service however there are certain special privileges like a pension on retirement with commutation facilities and certain concessions like free medical treatment educational fee concessions and so forth."
Para 259 of Sastry Award
"Having considered all aspects of the matter, I am of the view that to the extent that prevailing rates of wages in similar occupations in the same localities play a part in fixation of wages, the workmen have made out a case for an upward revision of their emoluments".
Para 5.181 of Desai Award
From above provisions of Awards, it is indisputably clear that in the matter of wage fixation of Bank Employees there has been convention and practice to compare and consider the wages and salaries of Government Employees with that of bank employees even in period of Awards which were given more than 60 years ago.
Why this convention and principle has been overlooked in last 22 years to the detriment and disadvantage of bank employees to place them in much inferior position as compared to Government Employees especially when it is undoubtedly clear that bank employees perform duties which require greater skill, risks and responsibilities as compared to other employees?
So if Bank Employees are comparing their wages with Government Employees to demand equality and parity or coverage under CPC/Banking Pay Commission, it is in conformity with historical provisions and conventions and these must not be overlooked
