By Dr. Gyan Pathak
The talks between the representative of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) held on September 4 has failed. On the one hand, UFBU has said that they are not in a position to defer their multiple strike schedule in banks, beginning from September 11, the managements of banks have already issued alerts for possible disruptions in banking operations.
UFBU, which represents India’s more than 90 per cent of banking workforce across public-sector, private, foreign, regional rural and cooperative banks, and which 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) – 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.
UFBU has written on X, “The meeting between UFBU and IBA held today ended without any positive outcome on our key demands. With the issues of 5-day banking, discriminatory PLI, and other pending/residual issues remaining unresolved, there is no reason to defer the strike call.”
The meeting for talks was held on IBA’s invitation to representatives of bank unions for discussion on the issues raised by them in their strike notices. During the talks IBA representatives appealed the union leaders to defer their strike and continue discussions though bilateral negotiations.
However, UFBU representatives said 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 includes 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 pension-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 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 ger 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.
Bank of India (BoI) has already flagged potential branch disruption due to banking strike on multiple dates beginning from September 11. BoI has informed stock exchanges and alerted them of potential disruption. BoI has said that it is taking necessary steps to ensure smooth functioning of its branches and offices during the strike days. It should be noted that banks are required to give such notices under Regulation 30 and Regulation 46 (2)(o) of the SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015. Other banks are also alerting their consumers for possible disruption of services during strikes.
The UFBU’s decision to launch multiple rounds of nationwide bank strikes deserved to be examined not merely as an industrial dispute between bank unions and the IBA and the government, but as a larger question concerning the future of banking, labour relations, and public accountability.
Bank strikes are warning signs of deeper crisis in Industrial Relations, not merely a battle over working days or employee’s incentives. The five-day banking promise has been caught in bureaucratic delay. Therefore, the larger question is – If an agreement has already been reached through the recognized mechanism of collective bargaining, why should its implementation remain indefinitely pending?
India’s workforce already suspects the intentions of the government led by PM Narendra Modi, since it goes on suppressing their rights, unilaterally as seen in the implementation of the labour codes. Even agreed agreements, such as in the present case, are not implemented if government does not want. The government delay has weakened confidence on the government, who has been alleged to have working for weakening the trade union movement in the country. PLI issue raises concerns about government’s policy of discriminations towards the various grades of the employees and officers.
Failure of the talks held on September 4 between UFBU and IBA, indicates that the government is adamant on its attitude, while the IBA is not negotiating the issues seriously, but only asking the UFBU to end their proposed strike actions and enter into bilateral talks with banks to resolve their issues. (IPA Service)
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