Wage Talk Inconclusive

Wage talks inconclusive: Bank employees wait for ‘achhe din’ gets longer-Hindu Business Line

Banks do not heed to unions’ demands as their profitability is under pressure

Mumbai, June 16:

   

Lakhs of employees of public sector banks, old private sector banks, and some foreign banks, will have to wait longer for achhe din (good days), as a wide gap has emerged between what the bank managements are ready to offer in terms of wage hike and the unions’ demands.

 

At the wage negotiation talks held on Friday, trade union representatives sought a 25 per cent hike in wages.

 

The bank managements, under the aegis of the Indian Banks’ Association, however, were willing to up their offer by only one percentage point (from 10 per cent to 11 per cent) in the payslip component on a cost-to-company basis.

 

The 10th industry-wide bipartite wage settlement negotiations in the banking sector have dragged on for more than one-and-a-half years now without making much headway.

 

So far about nine rounds of negotiations have taken place. While a senior IBA functionary dubbed the trade unions’ 25 per cent wage hike demand as ridiculous, the unions feel the bank managements are being plainly stubborn. The talks ended on an inconclusive note on Friday. The ninth five-year bipartite wage settlement, which ran from November 1, 2007, to October 31, 2012, resulted in bank employees getting a 17.5 per cent pay hike.

 

According to Vishwas Utagi, Vice-President, All India Bank Employees Association, “Bank managements have taken the position that their profitability is under pressure due to provisions they have to make towards bad loans.

 

“But then employees have given their all to develop banks’ business, thereby contributing to economic development. So why should they not get a decent wage hike?”

 

To speed up the wage negotiation process, Utagi said the United Forum of Bank Unions (the umbrella body of 10 trade unions in the banking sector) will seek Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s intervention. He added that efforts need to be made to find a middle ground and amicably settle the issue without much delay so that bank employees can herald achhe din in their lives.

 

Hindu Business Line