Roadmap To 10th Bipartite In Banks----- By Himadri

Roadmap for 10th Bipartite Settlements-

Part-II

Central Government Employees Grow 

Richer 

while Bank Employees remain “ HAND 

TO MOUTH”

When Mr. Om Prakash Bhatt, the former Chairman of the State Bank Group graduated from College, he was at ‘crossroads’ puzzled between myriad of career options and baffled deciding between civil services and career in banking. His father advised him to opt for the Probationary Officer's career in SBI as the salary of an IAS in 1972 was less than the salary of a SBI PO.

Today, it's a complete different picture. Today a Probationary Officer of any Public Sector Bank, works anywhere between 10-12 hours everyday barring Sundays. Officers are even called on Sundays very often. For this a new entrant PO gets a meager salary of Rs 24,000/- per month (Other benefits not included). While a new entrant IAS officer gets anywhere in the range of Rs 40,000/- (Salary Grade of Rs 15650/- and Other benefits not included)Of course the responsibilities and the nature of work of both cannot be compared.But this outlines the dismal ‘compensation picture’ for bank officers, in return for unruly working hours, constantly progressing targets and ignominious treatments by superiors etc.

In the incoming Xth Bi partite negotiations, our union leaders are urged upon to make it a point to remove this lacuna and difference between the salaries and pay scales of a central governemt empolyee and a bank employee. Please make it a point to incorporate in your charter of demands:

Demand no:1<Remove anomalies between pay and allowances of SBI and other Nationalized bank employees,>

Demand no:2<REMOVING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PAY AND PERQUISITES OF BANK EMPLOYEES AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Comparative salary for April, 2010 payables togovt. employees as per VIth Pay Commission and tobank employees as proposed under 9^th BipartiteSettlement between Bank Unions and IBA

(Amt. in Rs.)

Heads	Group A Officers Govt. of India (Rs.)	Bank Officers (Rs.)	Clerk Govt. of India (Rs.)	Clerk Govt./public sector bank (Rs.)	Group 'D'employee in Govt. of India (Rs.)	Sub-staff in a govt./public sector bank (Rs.)
Basic Pay	15600	14500	8370	6200	5530	5500
Grade Pay	5400	Nil	2800	nil	1800	Nil
Special Pay	nil	Nil	nil	1000		350
Dearness Allowance	7350 (35%)	5329 (36.75%)	3910 (35%)	2646 (36.75%)	2566 (35%)	2150 (36.75%)
H.R.A.	6300 (30%)	1233 (8.5%)	3351 (30%)	720 (10%)	2199 (30%)	585 (10%)
C.C.A.	Nil	435 (3% Max.540)	Nil	288 (4% max.375)	Nil	234 (4% of B.P. Max.270)
Education Allowance (Rs.1000/= per child max for 2 children)	2000	Nil	2000	Nil	2000	nil
Transport Allowance	4320 (3200+35% DA )	Nil	2160 (1600+35% DA)	225	810 (600+35% DA)	225
Gross Monthly salary	40970	21497	22591	11079	14905	9044

(In the above, past data taken to illustrate the stark differences)

BENEFITS GIVEN TO CENTRALGOVT. EMPLOYEES but not available to PUBLIC SECTOR BANK EMPLOYEES

Central govt. employees (as per VI pay commission)	Bank employees
Basic pay has been fixed approx Old BP + 50% DA x 1.86 Which is around 2.79 times	Approx. 41% (initially increase is 45% later it decreased also). This 41% revision in basic pay also include merger of DA about 32%. Thus only 9% effective increase in basic pay.
Grade pay considered as a part of Basic Pay and attract all allowance	No grade pay
HRA 20%-30%	Officers: 6.5% to 8.5% Clerks: 7.0 to 10%
No stagnation ( 3% increase every year to all employees on stagnation)	Stagnation (No Annual increment).
Transport Allowance Officer: 3200 +DA (presently 4320) Group C: 1600 + DA (presently 2160) Group D: 600 + DA: (presently 810) Transport allow. Will increase on every increase of DA which is presently 35%	Officer: Different banks give different meager transport allowance and that too is for official purpose works Clerk: 225 Sub-staff: 225 (NO DA payable on transport allowance)
Educational Allowance Rs.1000 per child per month ( Max. for 2 children) from the earlier 50/= p.m. 10 fold increase in hostel subsidy to Rs.3000/= p.m.	No Education Allowance
PENSION: Govt. pays the entire amount	pension scheme for bank employees is a contributory scheme. Every time a bipartite settlement takes place, a hefty sum is earmarked from the amount offered to existing staff for payment of pension to retired employees.
Pension is revised whenever a new pay commission report is implemented	No revision of pension. Once fixed it will remain same for entire life
Condition of 33 years of service to get full pension is abolished	Full pension is given only on completion of 33 years of service.
Additional pension On attaining the age 80 yrs 20% addl. 90 yrs 30% addl. 95 yrs 50% addl. 100 yrs 100% addl.	Only pension once fixed
Accumulation of Earned Leave For 300 days	240 days
Compassionate appointment facility available	Compassionate appointment facility abolished
In pursuance of recommendations of VIth Central Pay Commission, the Govt. of India approved merger of 50% DA into Basic Pay w.e.f. 01.04.2004.	No such benefit made available
VIth Central Pay Commission also recommended 50% merger of DA into basic pay	No benefit proposed
No pre condition imposed on Pay Commission to restrict its recommendations within a certain limit. Pay Commission fixes pay scales scientifically keeping in view the cost of living, medical, housing, health, education etc.	IBA imposes precondition of additional load percentage in advance
Interest on Provident Fund GPF (General Provident Fund) interest rate for 2012-13 raised to 8.8%...	Rate of interest on EPF of govt. employee is 8.5% whereas many banks have been paying much less to their employees for last few years.

Average Bank employee has not been given increase even equal to Education and Transport Allowance given by Central Govt. to its employees, What to talk about Grade Pay, HRA Basic Pay etc.

‘Musings of life’ cannot conceal the feeling of amazement at the loyalty shown by bank employees to these union leaders, who just ‘stabbed’ the employees on their back. They should keep it in their minds that, these demands constitute wishlists of lakhs of bank employees of this country and their successful incorporation and materialization will be the litmus test for success of Xth Bi partite settlements.

Posted by: Himadri Shekhar Bhattacharjee.

BCOM(Hons.),CAIIB,DMFM,DTIRM,NCFM(MFund.), NCFM(Depository), NISM(Depository), CFP(Finalist).