An Appeal to Bank Union Leaders

Young Indian Banker's Association - YIBA.

Will the UFBU rise up to the occasion?

The UFBU is meeting at Mumbai on 19.02.2014 to discuss and decide on the further course of action. This meeting comes in the backdrop of postponement of the negotiation meeting fixed on 13.02.2013. This by itself is a well calculated snub for the UFBU. Then comes the erudite FM on the scene, who declares nonchalantly that “All profits of the banks cannot be used for paying higher wages”, and the ever obedient media catches on to his words to paint a darker picture of the bank employees, short of stating that we are the villains coming in the way of economic development of the nation and uplifting the masses.

These two instances, though apparently separate, clearly indicate that neither the IBA nor the Govt care a hoot for the UFBU and its negotiating team. Thus a marked disregard for the process of bipartite arrangement established in the late ‘60s has become apparent. If this is not countered by UFBU through appropriate counter measures without any further waste of time, then they will only end up sealing the fate of the lakhs of serving bank employees , besides making the career in banking an unattractive proposition for the future generation.

Those who joined in the late ‘70s are familiar with the Pillai Committee Recommendations, which put the salary of bank officers on par with Group A officers of the govt. But not many of the bank employees are aware that similar pay parity was granted to the workmen more than 60 years ago. After dusting out the Sastry Award & Desai Award from my extensive collection, I could locate those beneficial provisions and for the first time, it was revealed by me through the Face Book groups.

For construction of a wage scale, there should be a basis or starting point, like prevailing wages in similar or comparable employment, the capacity of the industry to pay etc. In the case of bank employees, the Sastry Award of 1953, provided this justification through the following paragraphs and the same basis was also upheld and adopted by the subsequent Desai Award of 1962. The following are these provisions :
Para 252 of Sastry Award:[On the principle of prevailing rates of wages]:" .... The rates of pay in certain departments of Government such as Posts & Telegraphs and in State Governments will also furnish material for the construction of pay scale for 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 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."

Para 259 of Sastry Award: " In the 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............We may nevertheless take the Government pay scales as an indication, however rough, of how the clerical class in general should be remunerated......"

Para 5.181 of Desai 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".

In this context, the frank approach of AIBOC deserves appreciation. In their Circular 2014-08, they have gone on record that : ” dilution in our salaries vis a vis Government Officials has taken place over a period starting from 1982 and gap has widened with successive settlements.” But the continued silence of the workmen unions on the issue of pay-parity makes one wonder if they do not want their members to know anything about the provisions Sastry & Desai Awards.

1. Are we not entitled to receive 6th CPC scales (implemented with effect from 01-01-2006) at least from 01-11-2012, i.e. after a delay of 7 years?

2. Are we in pay parity with the Central govt scales(6th CPC of 2006) at the time of the last bipartite?

3. Will the 30% increase demanded by UFBU put us in parity with the govt employees or still we will be in deficit?

4. What will happen to us on 01-01-2016 from which date 7th CPC scales will come to force, even if we get a 30% increase?

In the aftermath of the aforementioned frank admission of AIBOC, coupled with the provisions of Sastry Award & Desai Award, these queries assume a paramount significance and emphasise the urgent need to secure the pay-parity for the bank employees vis a vis the govt employee. So, for the first time, I decided to bring these Award provisions in Public and did this through the prominent FaceBook groups frequented by the younger generation of bank employees. This was done four weeks ago, and to this date, none of the UFBU functionaries or their deputies who frequent the facebook and to whom these queries were raised could provide a straight forward answer.

No doubt, the UFBU has got an uphill task. The advent of social media has ensured that members are not going to be tolerant with the old ways of opaque discussions on the wage front with the IBA. With the younger generation demanding a pay-parity coupled with 5-day working and transparency in discussions, there are indications aplenty pointing out to the hard days ahead. But hard times need equally harder decisions that differentiates men from boys.

Shri Kamlesh Chaturvedi ji, the veteran leader from Lucknow has made quite a few interesting suggestions in his facebook page , which I too endorse.

(1) UFBU must now serve a notice on IBA scrapping the Pension Settlement dated 29.10.1993 as also 27.04.2010 demanding uniform Pension to each and every bank employee whether old or new and thereby rectifying the sin committed in the past.

(2) UFBU must use new weapon of uninterrupted and continuous working by staying inside branches without food and rendering customer service till demands are accepted.

(3) Refuse to talk and negotiate unless and until FM and Chairman of the Negotiating Committee of the IBA offer unconditional apology.

(4) Place condition of no negotiations till pay parity is guaranteed.

The younger generation of aam bankers are ready even for an indefinite strike, because it is their career and prestige that is at stake. But at the same time they are in no mood to tolerate any betrayal or watering down of their genuine aspirations on pay-parity. Now when UFBU meets on Feb.19 to work out their further course of action, the aam bankers throughout the country eagerly await their deliberations and decisions. It is time for the UFBU to prove that they are men with nerves of steel and not chicken-hearted boys and to get us back the glorified status that we had lost three decades ago.

Sangharsh KARO

A single statement by FM has derailed entire negotiation process. IBA is bold enough to cancel scheduled meeting on 13th.
"All bank profits cannot be used for wage hike. There are other claimants to profits:

It is not secret who are they and Banks have already written off more than 140000crores as bad loans As we have all worked in Banks we know there are well laid down procedures and guide lines for sanctioning loans. If a manager grants loans violating these norms and loan account becomes bad he will be charge sheeted even after his retirement and retirement benefits are withheld. So how these few accounts where huge outstanding dues of which accounts for more than 70% of total NPAs come to be sanctioned? Why no body is made accountable for these NPAs and no heads are rolled? 

Govt has installed yes man in most of the PSU Banks as CMDs. Corporate

 giants donate heavily to political parties In turn govt dole out favours to 

them 

like unwarranted Tax breaks.

licences violating norms, Snatching farmers land and giving to these business giants for peanuts. Sanctioning huge Bank loans otherwise they would have ineligible for the same in normal course aso one of favours. Political parties are resisting disclosing names of donors to their party funds. If list of donors published it will not be surprising if we find top defaulters of PSU banks figure in this list. Banks are not showing any eagerness in taking strict action against these huge defaulters as much as they show in recovering small loans. If top defaulters are friends to government they will be protected. When Mr.Amitab Bachhan lost favour with congress big bosses Banks were so eager to initiate recovery that he has to face grim situation of loosing his residence also. So CMDs has to dance according to tunes played by political masters in Delhi. 

Bank employees/pensioners have become victims to these dirty political tricks played. Both IBA and FM are cunningly portraying bank employees as greedy. 

Now we are in dark tunnel where no light is visible.