Bank wage talks begin on May 2: Business Standard
Wage negotiations between bank
employees and staff unions, on the one hand, and the bank managements, on the
other, will get off the ground on May 2, on hopes of finalising the package by
the end of October.
Bank officers, employees, and staff
organisations will work through the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), while
the Indian Banks Association (IBA) would represent the bank managements.
Banking union sources said the first
meeting would be an introductory one. The forum has given a summary of demands
and will submit the details when talks begin. Sanjeev K Bandlish, convener,
UFBU, representing 11 unions, will lead the team from the workers’ side.
The IBA has formed a panel of
bankers for negotiations. Most public sector banks (PSBs), including State Bank
of India (SBI), had given their board-approved mandate for talks, a senior PSB
executive said.
The term of the existing wage pact
for the banking industry ends in October. The last wage negotiations, pending
since 2012, were settled in May 2015 with a 15 per cent hike.
Since January last year, the finance
ministry has been persuading banks to finalise the modalities for a timely
implementation of the next pay revision from November 1, 2017.
There are 21 public sector banks
after the merger of five lenders with SBI on April 1. They together employ
about 800,000 people.
At a time when the government is
contemplating cutting employee benefits in 10 laggard public sector banks, bank
officers have demanded that they should be given a revised basic pay at par
with central government officers on the principles of the Seventh Pay
Commission.
The Pay Commission had recommended
an overall 23.55 per cent hike in basic pay plus allowances. The government had
accepted a 14.27 per cent hike in basics pay, while the allowances would have
to be decided later.
Read at: Business-standard
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