4 Days' All India Bank Strike from 25th February to 28th February

Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 6:27 PM

INDEFINITE STRIKE FROM 16TH MARCH 2015

ñ    INDIAN BANKS' ASSOCIATION BACKTRACKS FROM ITS ASSURANCE

ñ    UNITED FORUM OF BANK UNIONS DECIDED TO REVIVE THE STRIKE PROGRAMMES

ñ    4 DAYS STRIKE FROM 25TH FEB. to 28^th FEB.  2015

ñ    INDEFINITE STRIKE FROM 16TH MARCH 2015 

On the decision taken and call given by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), officers and employees in all the Public Sector Banks are going to observe  4 Days' All India Bank Strike from 25^th February to 28^th February 2015 to demanding

 ¨                  Immediate Wage Revision

¨                  To stop Banking Reforms

 For the preparation of 4 days' strike, Punjab Bank Employees Federation (Ludhiana) held a General Body Meeting at Punjabi Bhawan, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana.  Com. S.K.Gautam, Joint Secretary, All India Bank Employees Association and General Secretary, Punjab Bank Employees Federation, Com. P.R.Mehta, President,  Com. Amrit Lal, Chairman, Com. G.K.Joshi, Secretary, Punjab Bank Employees Federation and Com. Pawan Thakur, President, Punjab Bank Employees Federation (Ludhiana Unit) addressed the meeting.                                      

  

While addressing the bank employees, Com. S.K.Gautam said that in the background of the assurance given by Indian Banks' Association (IBA) towards expeditious wage settlement and considering the positive developments since last conciliation meeting, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) put on hold its call for 4 days' strike from 21^st January 2015.  In the meeting held on 3^rd February 2015,   IBA finally proposed to improve their offer from 12.5% to 13% and expected UFBU to scale down its demand.  Our sincere and persuasive efforts to negotiate a reasonable and mutually acceptable wage increase are being misunderstood by the IBA and the Government as its weakness. With utmost patience, for the past two years, UFBU has been making its best efforts to settle the demands amicably. At every point of time, we have shown our flexibility. But unfortunately, it is not being reciprocated by IBA.

 Com. Gautam further stated that wages and service conditions in the banking sector are governed by the industry level bipartite settlements signed between the Indian Banks Association and the trade unions of bank employees and officers. Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks and Foreign Banks who give their mandate to the Indian Banks Association are party to the Settlements and hence are covered by the same. The 9th Bipartite Settlement came to an end on 31-10-2012. Consequently, revision of wages and other service conditions have become due as from 1-11-2012. In view of this,  common set of demands for the employees and officers was submitted to the Indian Banks Association on 30-10-2012. UFBU requested the IBA to adopt a time-bound programme to hold the negotiations on the demands and to expedite the Settlement as early as possible. Even though the formal negotiations started in February 2013, a few rounds of discussions have taken so far. It will be appreciated that the alarming and unabated price rise have seriously eroded the income of the employees and hence the wage revision has become all the more important. The Consumer Price Index has gone up by almost 2400 points under (1960=100) Index series since November, 2007. Hence wage revision to catch up with the high inflation and price rise has become an urgent necessity. Similarly, the workload in the bank branches has gone up substantially due to increase in total volume of business and also due to non-provision of adequate staff and officers in the branches. Employees and officers are working under a lot of stress and strain. The job profile of the staff has also undergone a change and all these require to be properly remunerated with adequate increase in wages. For this reason also the wage increase has become important. But unfortunately, the IBA is delaying the Settlement.

The fact is otherwise :                      Profits of Public Sector Banks

Year	Total Profit	Provision for bad loans  etc	Net profit
31.03.2012	1,16,000 crore	66,000 crore	50,000 crore
31.03.2013	1,21,000 crore	71,000 crore	50,000 crore
31.03.2014	1,27,000 crore	90,000 crorer	37,000 crore

 Thus the total profits are increasing but obviously net profit is less due to provision for bad loans which burden should not be passed on to the shoulders of the ordinary employees. In fact, the Unions have assured that we can find out the ways and means to recover the bad loans through stringent measures and improve the profits through better productivity etc but it is unfair to deny their legitimate wage crease.

When the entire workforce in the banking industry is making every effort to implement the various programmes of the Government including the recent Jan Dhan Yojana, when employees and officers are working under lot of stress and maximum difficulty due to manpower shortage and increased volume of work, it is regrettable that the Government is remaining a passive spectator without initiating any steps to find an amicable solution to the genuine expectations of bank employees for a better and reasonable wage revision. We have been once again pushed to the path of struggle.