Bank Unions redefined trade
unionism. Collective surrendering replaced collective bargaining. Four
decades back, the Bank Officer had wages more than Central Government
officials. Those who believed in bilateralism allowed unilateralism through
Pillai Committee Recommendations in 1979. Within three and a half
decades, the bankers who earlier had higher pay than government employees now
get less than 30 to 40 percent than government employees. A unique achievement
of unions and associations out of bilateralism for their own
benefit! Bank employees toil hard from dawn to dust for six days
a week in hectic mode, cracking their bones and exhausting their brain.
The government counterpart works in a leisurely mode for five days a week. Nationalisation
and ownership of banks by government make bank employees its employees who are
to be paid out of exchequer. But as their
wage bills are appropriated against the income they generate in banks,
government does not pay anything for translating its policies into reality.
The time frame the government gave
for next Bipartite Settlement is over. But the settlement is in the air.
Early settlement will reduce the quantum of levy. There can be no other
logical reason for delaying the settlement. .
MoF, GoI had directed IBA to advise all banks to scrap the
clause for forfeiture of service from regulation 22 (4) (b) and to give
effect to it vide letter F No.4/8/4/95-IR dated 24.12.1997. The
amendment could be given effect to only by giving chance for option to those
who missed it earlier being unable to opt on or before 26.01.1996 when the
deleted clause was there in the regulations. Banks that amended the
regulation duped the employees by not giving the option, thus defeating the
very purpose of the amendment. Unions / Associations did not know what
took place and blinked at it.
The option was later allowed
through the Joint Note dated 27.04.2010, purely on unlawful terms. Employees on
rolls were subjected to a levy of 2.8 times pay for November, 2007 and payment
of a huge CPF balance while their counterparts who opted earlier paying a much
lesser contribution in 1996 were given option free of any
contribution. Similar manner of people got discriminatory treatment
opposed to the Constitution of the nation!.
For employees retired prior to the
date of the Joint Note, unions/associations agreed to a contribution of 56
percent of CPF in addition to refund of CPF paid on retirement for paying them pension
from an irrelevant date of 27.11.2009. When CPF and 56 percent of it,
presumably by way of interest for the period the amount was with the employee is
paid back, pension, the benefit in lieu of CPF shall flow from the date of
retirement and not from 27.11.2009. A preposterous and irrational conclusion
inconsistent with regulation 52 (1) that mandates payment of pension from the
day following the date of retirement which is irrational!
Regulation 7 delineates the
components of Pension Fund. Pension Funds can receive only these items. It
excludes a contribution from the employee other than the initial transfer of
his CPF to Pension Fund. But Banks, with the concurrence of unions and
associations, took from their members and former members the contribution of
2.8 times pay and 56 percent of CPF in derogation of the regulation. Unions
and associations agreed with IBA to dupe the employees through the Joint Note. The
statutory regulation does not warrant the contribution and it is refundable to
those concerned.
Conclusion 10 of the Joint Note
stipulates that IBA shall forward the Joint Note along with a copy of the
Pension Regulations to the government for its approval and further action of
amending the Pension Regulations pursuant to section 19 of the Banking
Companies (Acquisition & Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970/1980 (“the
Act”). The further action mandated by sub-section 4 of section 19
of the Act is placing the Joint Note in both the Houses of the Parliament, as soon as it is signed for a period of 30 days for their nod. The Joint Note signed on 27.04.2010 is not so far laid in
the Houses despite lapse of seven years. It is on the basis of this dud document that banks raised the
unlawful contributions from employees and retired employees and denied pension
from the date of retirement to 26.11.2009 abetted by unions/associations.
Regulation 5 (2) makes payment of
pension in accordance with the Regulations as the sole purpose of Pension
Fund. Hence Pension Funds
cannot pay pension in accordance with the Joint Note to those who have not
opted on or before 26.01.1996 i.e. within 120 days
of the notification as regulation 3 fixes this date as the time frame for any
category of employee to opt for pension. Any
pension paid out of the Pension Fund has to be from the day following the date
of retirement as mandated by regulation 52 (1). Pension paid to the
beneficiaries of the Joint Note out of the Pension Funds constituted under the
Pension Regulations from 27.11.2009 is a misapplication of Pension Funds.
IBA remains on
Achilles’ heels and it is accountable for the erroneous payments, which is
mounting month after month.
Regulations 5 (3) and 11 fix the
banks as sole contributor to the Pension Fund. The contribution of 2.8
times pay from employees and 56 percent of CPF from retired employees derogate
the regulations. Sub-section 1 of section 19 of the Act permits amendment to a
regulation only through notification in the gazette. The Joint Note is
not so far notified. This apart, sub-sections
1 and 4 prohibit the Boards of Banks from amending a regulation in a way prejudicial
to what is done earlier under a regulation. The provisions for paying pension
from 27.11.2009 instead of from the day following the date of retirement and
the contributions which derogate regulations 5 (3), 11 and 7 makes the Joint
Note unfit to be laid in the Houses of the Parliament as they prejudice what is
earlier done under the relative regulations. The Joint Note can never ever be laid in the Parliament to give
it force of law on account of the prejudicial conclusions. Pension Regulations are
remaining the same as notified on 29.09.1995 and yet the unions and
associations remain shy in getting the Pension Regulations enforced for reasons
best known to them only.
Pension Funds are built up of
contributions which banks were to make previously to CPF pursuant to EPF and
Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. The contributions are the statutorily
deferred wages of the employees. It is wages paid and retained by banks and is not
the money of banks. Payment of pension does not bring in any expenditure to banks or
to government as it is out of the Pension Fund. In all Public Sector Banks, Pension Funds are abounding in resources
and the denial of due benefits out of them has no raison d’etre. Instead, it is a crime and an offence to law.
Section 10 (7) of the Act permits the Boards of Banks to declare a dividend and to retain surplus
profits as accumulated reserves only after making due provision for all
legitimate expenses like bad debts, establishment expenses and superannuation
funds. It thus gives a prior charge to superannuation funds over the
profits of banks. Even in case of loss, banks should make due provision
to superannuation funds and the remainder alone can be declared as dividends or
kept as reserves as it is a statutory obligation. Whereas banks
had been regularly paying dividends, bank employees were plundered. Their
salary and terminal benefits are regularly robbed by the banks and IBA and paid
to government to pay higher salary to its employees.
Regulation 56 viz. Residuary
Provisions underlines that the Bank Pension Scheme is exactly on all fours with
the liberalized Central Pension Scheme by laying down that in case of
doubt in the matter of application of these regulations, regard may be
had to the corresponding provisions of Central Civil Service Rules, 1972 applicable
for Central Government employees with such exceptions and modifications
as the Bank, with the previous sanction of the Central Government may, from
time to time, determine. The Central Government has not so far permitted any deviation to
any bank from regulation 56 and it is hence imperative that as in the case of
Central Government employees whose pension gets revised with each Pay
Commission, pension in banks also shall be revised with each bipartite
settlement. This is an already sanctioned benefit and not a charity to beg from
IBA or government again as if it is not a sanctioned benefit.
Pension Funds has no purpose than
payment of pension / family pension. Employees recruited after 31.03.2010 need
not be serviced out of Pension Funds as they are covered by PFRDA Scheme. There
is huge corpus in Pension Fund of all banks which is the deferred wages of
employees. The annual growth in each
bank can foot two to four times the present pension to all the pensioners of
all banks. Even as things go like this, due pension and revision defined
by the statutory regulations is denied to the retired bank employee on a
fraudulent plea of paucity of funds. IBA and banks are indulging in a big
crime by unlawfully detaining the money in Pension Funds with no intelligent
reckoning and unions/associations are abetting the wrong.
The pension denied to retired
bankers and the unlawful contributions raised from the beneficiaries of the
Joint Note are lying in Pension Funds and earning compound interest to them. Banks
run no loss or expenditure in settling all the amounts with such compound
interest. Unions /associations remaining mute on procuring back the money
to retired members is absurd. It takes trade unionism to shame.
C H V was firm on not signing the last
Bipartite Settlement unless and until retiree issues are settled. He took a “U”
turn and signed it along with a Record Note consenting that there is no
contractual relationship for banks with their retired employees. It is
true. There is no contractual relationship. The
relationship is statutory and life-long, arising out of the Bank (Employees’)
Pension Regulations. Payment of due benefits is
a statutory obligation even if banks are running in loss. But even as
banks are operating in profits, statutory benefits are denied notwithstanding
the fact that such payment brings in zero cost either to the banks or to
government.
Bank Unions might be following the
footsteps of the Father of the Nation by practicing Voluntary Poverty.
They advocate it for members only. From them, they collect subscriptions
and levies for selling out their statutorily vested benefits. This is the
present mode of bank unionism. IBA and
unions outpace the British in plundering bank men and operate a slave dynasty
in the key industry of the nation.
Unions gave strike call for a day
in relation to merger of Associate Banks with SBI, recovery of NPAs,
reimbursement of demonitisation expenses to banks etc. Merger of
associate banks was an irresistible issue as it was already decided by the
government and Boards. Recovery of NPA is the role of the bank officials for
which agitation is meaningless. Reimbursement of demonitisation expenses could
help the bank heads to project higher profits and the gain will go back to the
government as dividend. The strike was entirely in furtherance of absurd
demands. The purpose it served was denial of banking facilities to the general
public for a day. The employees lost
their salary for a day and it helped bank heads augment their profits! Legitimate
labour issues are hidden under the carpet and trivial issues are pushed.
The banking intelligentsia comprising IBA is in troubled waters
for crafting the Joint Note with unsustainable terms with no grey matter is
their skulls and are sheltered by the unions / associations that remain
reluctant to challenge the agreement which the maker itself has breached
through non compliance with its clause 10.
There cannot be a bigger loot than that done by public sector banks
through the Joint Note making banks halls of shame especially as the victims
are senior citizens in hapless condition who built up the banks and the nation.
Any union/association worth a pinch of salt and with commitment
to members and past members in the industry can come forward and challenge the
Joint Note and demand refund of the unlawful contribution raised to Pension
Funds and release of pension from the date of retirement to 27.11.2009 to the
retired employees or take recourse to organizational methods as it is a just
cause. If they lack spine and nerve at least to conserve and
protect the statutorily vested benefits of the members, the right path for them
is to consign their flags and banners to flame or abandon them in the Arabian
Sea and stop plundering the members through subscriptions and unauthorized levies
arbitrarily collected on wage revisions.
Issued in furtherance of natural
justice on 6th June, 2017
COMMON CAUSE CONSORTIUM, KERALA
TCRA 87, SREEVILASAM ROAD, N
PARAVUR, KERALA – 683 513
comoncausekerala@yahoo.com Mob; 9446385945
आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः- Let noble
thoughts come to me from all directions
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