PROGRESS OF WAGE REVISION IN BANKING SECTOR IN INDIA

DEAR ALL,
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME SALIENT FEATURES ON THE SUBJECT MATTER.

As promised on 12th August 2013, after announcement of major points, I am putting my views and analysis. UFBU and IBA had negotiation talks on 12^th August 2013.    According to UFBU discussions were fruitful and satisfactory decisions on following important issues were arrived at :-

(a)    IBA has agreed that the Xth BPS will be applicable w.e.f. 1^st November, 2012 i.e. 
          the due date as per previous BPS;

      (b)   That 4400 will be merged for the purpose of DA

It is for the first time that since  Xth BPS has become due,  some serious discussions seems to have taken place and some firm commitments arrived at.  However,  it appears UFBU has once again failed to extract honourable commitment from IBA and bankers have already lost the initial battle.  Now chances of major hike have receded.

By agreeing that Xth BPS will be made applicable from the due date, IBA has not done any favour but merely agreed to do what was due to bankers.   On the second issue, that is merger of CPI points, the agreement to merge 4440 only shows that UFBU has failed in its duty to protect the interests of its cadre.   Everybody will remember that in Sixth Pay Commission, the merger was done upto the due date of revision and under the new scales the new DA was 0%.     In the circular UFBU has claimed:

“IBA explained their constraints to consider merger of Dearness Allowance at higher index points. After prolonged discussions and on the insistence of the UFBU for merger of D.A at a higher level to enable construction of Pay Scales in a reasonable manner looking to the Pay Scales of employees and officers in comparable sectors, IBA agreed and conceded to merge Dearness Allowance up to 4440 Consumer Price Index i.e. 401 slabs and construct new pay scales accordingly”   

UFBU has conveniently ignored to share with its cadre the constraints given by IBA.   I feel, it is wrong on the part of UFBU as to not share such constraints with cadre as it means they do not believe in  transparency.   If such constraints are genuine, then let these be made public.    Without going into further details, at present,  I leave it to our readers whether they need UFBU to be accountable to the cadre or to the management / IBA.

Thus, UFBU has lost a great opportunity to ensure that merger of CPI points should have been  upto October 2012 instead of October 2011.   It was during this period that there was steep increase in inflation and IBA has easily made fool of UFBU by ensuring that bankers do not get the benefit of merger for the period which has highest increase due to inflation.   By keeping Basic Pay at a lower level, IBA will be able to suppress the wage bill in the long run, and the losers will be bankers.

.....EDITOR