Pannvalan
S No
|
Central Government Staff
|
Bank Staff
|
1
|
Government
Employees have a greater say in implementation of all policies and
programmes of the government. They manage the routine affairs of the
government. They only make the government visible to the common man.
They are the people who are running the government show for all
practical purposes.
Few
disgruntled elements among the government employees here and there are
sufficient to bring down the popularity of an elected government.
So, no government will take the risk of displeasing them.
|
Bank
staff, who are considered as the central pillar of any country's
economy, have been reduced to voiceless creatures in our country. All
social welfare schemes are dumped on them, by various governments,
without giving them any choice or a say.
They
also have made themselves cheap in the eyes of the society, by
undertaking many jobs that are remotely connected to banking. Their own
managements also have to take a major share of the blame for this
situation, because they think that in order to face stiff competition in
the market and yet survive and flourish, banks must volunteer to do
many jobs, even if they are not remunerative and result in wastage of
precious human resources and loss of money.
|
2
|
Government
is a virtual monopoly in many fields. Moreover, the government is in a
commanding position to determine the destiny of many sectors and their
survival.
|
Though
banks are also equally powerful and very important to the nation,
because of intense, unhealthy and unequal competition, the mid-sized and
small banks find it difficult to remain competitive and profit-making.
|
3
|
Central
government employees/pensioners (48 lakh persons in service and 55 lakh
pensioners) constitute a good size of the population.
|
In comparison, bank staff in service (numbering about 10 lakhs) and another 2.50 lakh pensionersspread over the entire country are numerically very less.
|
4
|
If
we include those working in state governments and central/state PSUs
and also the pensioners who are anticipated to derive benefit out of
CPC, they add up to another 2.50 crores.
|
Same as a
|
S No
|
Central Government Staff
|
Bank Staff
|
5
|
If
we include their family members also, the total number of votes in
their command will cross 14 crores. This is a very huge vote bank that
any party in power cannot afford to displease.
|
Bank staff, pensioners and their family members form a small vote bank, which is immaterial to the party in power.
|
6
|
Pay Revision is determined by a Pay Commission that is constituted by the Central Government.
|
Pay revision is settled through bipartite talks between IBA and the body of majority Trade Unions (UFBU) at the national level.
|
7
|
The Central Pay Commission is headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
|
Union leaders are mostly self-appointed - not democratically elected -
and they claim to represent all sections of staff and pensioners.
Moreover, even those who retired from bank service long ago, are
participating in the wage revision talks, making mockery of the whole
process.
|
| 8 | Apart from the recognized Trade Unions and Associations, all employees individually or as a group can submit their oral/written demands and suggestions to the Commission directly. For this purpose, a separate web site was developed by the 7th Pay Commission and unrestricted access to this site was provided to everyone. This was one of the best steps taken by the Commission. | Individual members or a group of individuals arenot allowed to submit their demands, views and suggestions directly to IBA. Even if they volunteer to do so, IBA never takes cognizance of such inputs, howsoever relevant, useful, reasonable and logical they are. Thus, the so called union leaders occupy the whole space by themselves. |
S No
|
Central Government Staff
|
Bank Staff
|
9
|
Besides,
the commission members visit many parts of the nation - north to south
and east to west - and personally hear the views of all the
stakeholders. At the time of such visits, the Commission also receives
memoranda and petitions submitted by the employees, pensioners and their
groups/associations. If necessary, the individuals and representatives
of such groups/associations are called to headquarters of the Commission
for deposing before the full Commission. Their deposition is properly
documented and preserved.
|
Neither
the IBA officials nor the chief negotiators from the
unions/associations visit many parts of the country so as to ascertain
the views, aspirations and demands of individual members. Yet, if any
member or a group of members comes forward to share their views with the
union leaders and make suggestions, they are discouraged and resisted.
These central trade union leaders refuse to meet those who want to meet
them in person for this purpose. Worse still, if any member sends an
email to union's official email address in this respect, the sender's
email ID is blocked! IBA also does the same thing.
|
10
|
The
Pay Commission recommends for merger of the entire Dearness Allowance
outstanding as on the day preceding the date of enforcement of new
scales with Basic Pay.
|
During
the recent settlements, only that part of D.A. as existing 1 year
before the effective date of the wage revision is allowed to be merged
with Basic Pay. This results in lower Basic Pay, Allowances, Total
Salary and superannuation benefits like Gratuity, Leave Encashment,
Commuted Pension, Monthly Pension and Family Pension. It is a huge
lifetime loss to all employees and pensioners. In addition, it results
in fixation of lower pay scales in every wage accord in future.
|
11
|
Pension undergoes automatic upward revision with each wage revision.
|
Pension
once fixed remains the same. Even the revision made in D.A. with the
changes in Consumer Price Index gradually becomes a pittance, because
the Basic Pension does not get revised periodically.
|
12
|
Government
employees' salaries are charged to the Consolidated Fund of GOI,
without any reference to revenue receipts, revenue deficit and fiscal
deficit.
|
Wage
revision of bank staff is always linked to net profit of member banks.
It is atrocious to note that Bad Debts written off during the past 10
years is a mind boggling figure about which nobody is willing to talk.
Similarly, provisions kept for NPAs at the end of each year far exceed
the total establishment expenses for the whole year. This is a trend
observed during the past 6 years. As we all know, all the NPAs are not
irrecoverable. Therefore,
the amount of provisions made during the year for NPAs shall be added
back to the net profit, so as to arrive at the true 'cash profit' for
the year.
Moreover,
the government must adequately compensate all the banks (in monetary
terms) who faithfully implement the social lending schemes and social
welfare schemes of the government.
|
As
I am repeatedly writing, banks must not take up un-remunerative jobs
either voluntarily or due to pressure and compulsion from the government
or others. Method of calculating the 'net profit' of banks must change
so that camouflaging all evil practices by the banks is stopped
forthwith. Then only, the bad picture that is sought to be created in
common man's mind about the operational efficiency and profitability of
Indian Banks will change. The weak and corrupt trade union leaders shall
not be elected to the executive body of the trade unions and the
retired employees shall not be allowed to continue as members. While
the former is in the hands of the employees themselves, the latter can
be achieved only with the help of an amendment to the Trade Unions Act,
1926. Let us hope that things will move in the right direction in the
near future
