By Dr. Gyan Pathak
With all talks between the United Forum of Banks Unions (UFBU) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), Department of Financial Services (DFS), and Central Labour Commissioner under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment failed, the Public Sector Banks in India have issued alerts for possible disruption of banking operations during all India bank strike on September 11. Disruptions will be extended for the next three days on September 12 (second Saturday), September 13 (Sunday), and September 14 (public holiday on account of Ganesh Chaturthi).
After the latest talks held on September 9 at the office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) with the representatives of UFBU, IBA, DFS, and labour authorities, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) has said in a statement, “Two rounds of online meetings were held today. There has been no concrete outcome on the five-day work week. The strike stands.”
Talks between the representative of the UFBU and the IBA were also held on September 4 ha also failed, and UFBU had said that they were not in a position to defer their multiple strike schedule in banks, beginning from September 11.
It is worth noting that UFBU, in as umbrella organization which represents India’s more than 90 per cent of banking workforce across public-sector, private, foreign, regional rural and cooperative banks. It is comprised of seven banks’ employees’ and officers’ unions – All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) and Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF).
UFBU has given a call for one-day strike on September 11, to be followed by a three-day strike between September 28-30, and an indefinite strike from October 26 if the disputes are not resolved.
Thought UFBU represents 90 per cent of the banking workforce in India, it is strange that Union government preferred to talk with the representatives of the Bharaitya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), a member of the RSS family which also includes the ruling BJP. Union minister of Finance met delegation of bank employees representing different Public Sector Banks (PSBs) led by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh on September 7.
The delegation raised various issues relating to the banking sector including review of ex-gratia, medical facility for retired employees, revisiting the present structure of Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme applicable for the employees of PSBs, and other concerns related to employees.
Government press release stated that the concerns expressed by bank employees were taken cognizance of, and in response to the representation received on the PLI structure, it was decided to keep in abeyance the implementation of the PLI Scheme dated 19.11.2024 for FY 2025–26 and take up the same during the ongoing Bipartite Settlement/ Joint Note discussions.
The statement read, “The Government is committed to resolve issues through dialogue, consultation and mutual understanding in the larger interest of bank employees, customers and the banking sector.
However, this announcement of the government failed to pacify the UFBU, which is reflected during the talks on September 9, which failed. No further talks are officially scheduled before September 11 strike, though sources said that talks are going on behind the scene.
It is worth noting that BMS represents bank employees and officers through its affiliates – the National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and the National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO). They have very little presence in the banking sector, by government preferred to talk with them. It has simply irked UFBU and its affiliated organisations, that adversely impacted their talks with the government and IBA.
The DFS representatives appealed to the bank unions to reconsider the strike call in view of the BRICS Leaders’ Summit during 11-13 September in New Delhi. The unions, however, maintained that they could not defer the strike in the absence of a favourable decision or a definite timeline for implementation of the five-day work week.
During the talks on September 4 on IBA’s invitation, IBA representatives appealed the union leaders to defer their strike and continue discussions though bilateral negotiations.
UFBU representatives say that their issues were kept unresolves for too long a time without any progress in resolving the issues and hence they can’t postpone their agitation. UFBU’s 4 key demands include introduction of five-day banking, scraping of the new PLI system, revision of the scheme through bilateral discussion, and resolution of pending/residual issues including pnsion-related matters.
The demand for five-days banking is linked to an earlier agreement reached between the IBA and bank unions reached on March 8, 2024. Under the agreement Saturdays, other than the second and fourth Saturdays would become holidays, and employees would work around 40 minutes extra every day from Monday to Friday to compensate their working hours in a week. The agreement was sent to the government but no action has been taken for two years.
As for the demand for scraping of the New PLI system and renegotiation demand, UFBU says that the earlier understanding with the IBA was that PLI would be linked to the overall performance of the bank and that the number of incentive days would be uniform for employees and officers up to the Scale VII. However, the government has directed the banks to implement a different structure for officers of Scale IV and above. Inequality in the government order is obvious because under the new framework senior officers could get PLI of up to 365 days of basic pay plus dearness allowance, while officers below the Scale III would gent a maximum of 15 days benefit. (IPA Service)
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