Light On Wage Agreement 10th Bipartite Settlement

UFBU Seems To Have Made A Complete Sell Out to IBA Specially For Officers ?   

The fate of Bankers Retired / Retiring Between 1st November 2012 and 31st October 2017 Seems To Have Been Completely Sealed ?-

By Rajesh goyal
(source; allbankingsolutions.com)

Finally the curtains are down on the negotiations relating to percentage increase on Pay Slip components as IBA and UFBU signed an agreement fixing the same to be at 15%?  Now Bankers will get two Saturdays as off in a month. 

This is a serious article which needs to be properly read, understood and discussed as ignoring these issues at this stage can prove to be a complete SELLOUT for bankers.

Let me thank our visitors / readers for showing such a massive faith in our website.    I would like to gladly share  with our visitors that in 24 hours, as per Google,  the total page viewed at our website were 4,87,000+ starting 1.30 PM 23rd February, 2015 and upto 1.30 PM of 24th February, 2015   This is a record for us and we were afraid that our website may crash though we have a much bigger server hosting than most of similar  websites.    Thus, we rushed to  re-direct some links  to our another server for few hours so that our website can bear the load and visitors can view the pages uninterrupted and at the same speed.    All this has happened as most of the bankers are aware of this website and they have much greater trust on our website.   We hope you will continue to patronize our website and point out if ever we make a mistake.

Anyway that is now past and fate of the bankers is sealed at least upto October 2017, as the major issues relating to merger of DA and overall %age increase have been now signed.

As I was trying to analyse the impact of the agreement as released on 23rd February, 2015, I too was perplexed.   I was expecting that some leaders will come out and clarify certain issues.  However, I have yet to come across any authentic clarification on the contents of the agreement.  Therefore, lot of confusion is going around and number of questions are being asked through our website.  Some of our readers have sent certain Charts too giving  the likely increase.  However, at this stage instead of Charts, I felt it is better to first analyse the contents of the circular as Charts can be prepared only after fully understanding the implications of the terms agreed upon in the agreement.

I am of the opinion that the mobile photo of the agreement now in circulation conceals more than it reveals.   As it always happens, the agreements are worded in such a way that Aam Banker finds it extremely difficult to decipher the meaning.  Later on IBA will distort these and interprets the same in such a way that bankers are denied even their rightful dues.   The interpretations of 9th BPS lead to lot of heart burning for retirees and filing of large number of cases in various Courts.

I was restraining myself from interpreting the agreement, but in view of the huge faith of readers, I am giving below my interpretations of the agreement.   However,  I would like to caution our readers:

(a)            Whatever I am giving below is purely based on the wordings as interpreted by me as I am not privy to inside information which UFBU leaders might have done with IBA.   Therefore, some of UFBU leaders may not agree with me at present but slowly fall in line.

(b)            Our viewers are free to seek clarification from their leaders so that we get the real stories and more facts;

(c)             Remember, I am already retired and I am not going to get any benefit from this BPS.   Therefore, I have no interest in interpreting in a particular way.   I am NOT against a particular category of bankers (e.g. workmen or officers).   I am also not against any group of bankers say juniors (who have less than 10 years service)  or seniors (who are going to retire by October 2017).

I am giving all my views as independent person and you are free to challenge these provided you has more inside details of the BPS.  Any challenge without any proof will be exposed soon. These calculations are subject to E&OE).   I am sure some of these interpretations will smell the SELLOUT and SCAM against Aam Banker, specially the officers.

(a)            Based on my interpretation, I have prepared two Sheets (one for workmen and one for officers).   Each of these is based on the salary and DA of November 2012,  These can be downloaded from the following links:-

·                     Construction of New Scales for Officers as on November 2012 (including old salary and new salary)

·                     Construction of New Scales for Workmen as on November 2012 (including old salary and new salary)

·                     Download Minutes of the Meeting held on 23rd February, 2015 where UFBU and IBA agreed for increase of 15%

(Remember, the above is purely an exercise to understand the construction of scales and does not include the specific allowances and FPA, PQA etc.  Thus, increase in these will be add few hundred rupees)

(b)            The agreement appears to have been designed in such a way that it decreases the load on banks for present as well as in future.   The load on Basic Pay is merely 2% instead of 15% across all components.   Thus, if we have lower increase on Basic Pay, banks will have to increase the percentage of HRA or some other allowances.   The present pay structure points out that the higher increase can be towards HRA.   We have assumed that major increase will be in the HRA percentage as it will give a feel good feeling to bankers (specially workmen)  as Central Govt at metros enjoy 30% HRA, whereas in Banks it is around 10% only.   Thus, HRA is likely to be increased to 20%, with some other minor adjustments in other allowances, so that total load on Pay Slip component comes to 15%.   Moreover, by keeping Basic Pay lower, the future DA increase will also be lower and will affect bankers adversely for five years.

(c)             The biggest challenge before Banks at present is attrition rate of new staff and the imminent increase in Pension due to mass retirement that will continue at least till end of 2017. 

(d)            It seems to meet these challenges; they have been successful in befooling UFBU.   How?   The question here is what will be the impact of Lower Basic Pay (as only 2% increase is being given on Basic Pay).  Who will gain and Who Will Be Cheated?  My interpretation is that Nobody Will Gain and Bankers (officers as well as workmen) Who Have Retired After 1st November 2012 and Those Who Will be Retiring upto 31st October, 2017, have been cheated.    The lower Basic Pay will result in fixation of lower pension, as the main component in the fixation of pension is the Basic Pay.    Thus, all seniors retiring upto October 2017 have been completely cheated by inserting the clause of only 2% increase in Basic Pay;

(e)             Another set of bankers who will be affected or will hardly get any increase in their salaries are Officers who have taken leased accommodation.   Their Basic Pay will increase by only 2%, whereas they will not be able to take the benefit of the increase in HRA (which may be increased to 20%).   Thus, officers who are posted outside their home towns and are forced to live on leased accommodation will find hardly any increase in their net salary.

(f)              If my interpretation as given in above charts is correct, then I am of the opinion, workman still will be slightly better off then their officer counterparts as they will get the benefit of increased HRA and other allowances.

Based on my above analysis, I would like UFBU leaders, specially AIBOC  (Mr Harvinder Singh) and AIBOA, whether the above interpretation is correct.   If not, then they must release the more detailed workings as to how scales will be constructed so that the rumors are put to end.   Are they planning to introduce a new type of allowance for officers on which they will DA and pension?    If these interpretations are broadly correct, then why they failed to watch the interest of the officers.   Similarly, workmen unions need to introspect whether the total increase in salaries is in line with the present salary structure of Central Government and PSU employees.  Whether they have not compromised with the future increase of DA by committing to increase of mere 2% on Basic Pay.  I wish they have better interpretation of the agreement. 

In the meantime, readers can give their views and need to continue the pressure on UFBU leaders so that some of these anomalies are brought to light and then removed before the finalization of the 10th BPS which is likely to be signed after about 90 days.