CLC has suggested IBA to hold negotiation committee meeting with UFBU on 23rd at Mumbai at 11.30 a.m. Convener UFBU has informed that strike stands. All are requested to be in preparedness and show strength with full participation.
Indian Bank Association and Bank Unions failed to reach to an agreement-20.02.2015 5.p.m.-Business Standard -Next round of talks scheduled on February 23
C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All Indian Bank Employees Association said that in response to the strike call issued by the Unions, the Chief Labour Commissioner P P Mitra held a conciliation today in his office in Delhi. M V Tanksale, Chief Executive of Indian Banks' Association, (IBA) and K Unnikrishnan, deputy Chief Executive IBA have participated in the meeting.
During the conciliation meeting, the IBA requested the Unions to defer the strike call so that further negotiations can continue. Unions pointed out that when earlier strike call was deferred there was no positive response from IBA and unless IBA can come out with further positive improvement in their offer, it is not possible to defer the strike, he said.
After discussions, the CLC advised that one more round of direct bipartite talks be held to find out an amicable solution and it is advisable to avoid strike in the banking sector in the interest of the economy.
Accordingly, IBA has fixed further direct bipartite negotiations between IBA and UFBU on February 23.
So far IBA has offered an increase of 13 per cent, which translates to Rs 4,095 crore. However, Unions want the IBA to substantially improve their offer and have also offered to further negotiate on their present demand of 19.5 per cent to find out an acceptable solution, said Venkatachalam.
He also urged the Centre to intervene and help in arriving at an amicable understanding on the demands.
"If no tangible and positive outcome would be there in the negotiations on 23rd, Unions would be constrained to implement their four days strike from February," said Venkatachalam. The Union also threatened to go on indefinite strike from March 16.
Bank unions may settle for lower wage hikes, call off strike-LiveMint 19.02.2015
Union leaders to hold talks with Indian Bankers’ Association on Friday to resolve issue pending since 2012
Mumbai: Bank unions may call off a planned four-day nationwide strike starting 25 February and settle for lower wage hikes than earlier demanded, after finance minister Arun Jaitley asked union leaders to resolve differences with bank managements.
Union leaders will meet representatives of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), the apex bankers’ lobby, on Friday for conciliatory talks to resolve the pending wage issues in the presence of chief labour commissioner P.P. Mitra.
The last round of negotiations between the unions and the IBA, held on 3 February, failed after the IBA offered a 13% hike compared to 12.5% offered earlier.
But this was still much lower than the 19.5% demanded by the unions.
Bank wages are revised every five years. The present round of wage hike is pending since November 2012.
The finance minister was aware of the pending wage hike issue, but preferred not to quantify the percentage increase in wages that should be agreed upon, according to All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam.
“He said your demands are genuine but banks have their own constraints. There should be a convergence of both demands soon, but in the interim you should keep the talks on,” said C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of AIBEA.
While the IBA started the negotiation process with a pay hike proposal of 5%, unions demanded 25%. Negotiations stalled in 2014 and employees stayed off work several times.
In 2010, the last time wages were revised, both sides settled on a hike of 17.5%. The last hike, however, included pension and gratuity, while this time the hike is being calculated only on the pay slip component.
While the finance minister did not explicitly ask unions to call off the proposed four-day strike, Venkatachalam interprets it as a message to unions to not resort to strikes.
“No finance minister of a country will want strikes. We told the finance minister that we also don’t want strikes, but we want to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We are aware about banks’ problems and we are ready to amicably settle the issue with IBA provided they show some flexibility,” Venkatachalam said.
At the meeting, the union leaders submitted a memorandum to the finance minister raising issues ranging from pending wage hikes to demands for other benefits like regulated working hours for bank officers and an improvement in pension benefits.
“For about 40 minutes, we explained our issues to him and (the) finance minister gave a very patient hearing with positive observations on some of the issues raised by us,” according to a circular to members issued by AIBEA and the All India Bank Officers’ Association, the two largest bank unions of the country.
Banking sector to witness high attrition rate: RBI-Hindu Business Line 20.02.2015
Mumbai, Feb 20:
With the banking sector being thrown open to niche as well as more private players, RBI deputy governor R Gandhi today warned the industry to brace for higher attrition, being already faced by highly unionized public sector lenders.
“We’ve been telling banks to expect people to hop from one institution to another. Old method of developing a cadre and expecting them to continue with you for life is going to change. Attrition is going to be the norm,” Gandhi said.
Addressing a seminar organised by the SEBI-managed National Institute for Securities Markets, at its upcoming campus at Patal Ganga near here, Gandhi said he foresees the demand for high specialisation rising in the banking space.
“It is going to be expertise-driven and niche. When expertise, knowledge and specialisation are in high demand, people will be hopping jobs,” he said.
However, he said RBI doesn’t have latest attrition levels in but added that it foresees a spike in demand for experienced hands with more new banks come up.
Inflation
On inflation, which rose to 5.11 per cent in January, a tad above 5 per cent target set by RBI for 2016, Gandhi expressed confidence that low inflation will continue. “We are definitely going to have a low and stable inflation climate that will lead to low interest rate regime.”
He said that when low interest rate regime stays for long it leads to higher investor appetite. This spawns various new financial instruments, products and services that again increase demand for more expert hands in the market.
Non-performing assets
On the deteriorating NPAs levels, which as per ICRA are set to touch 5.7 per cent next fiscal due to the new CDR norms from April, Gandhi said RBI has been continuously saying that there can be more slippages in restructured accounts.
“We have been warning banks that they should be looking at the entire stressed assets and not just NPAs. That is why we have been paying attention not just on the declared NPAs but the total whole stressed accounts,” he added.
On how long the NPA issue is likely to haunt banks, he said “our expectation on growth is positive. Growth should help them to come out of this problem“.
When asked about allowing banks to convert debt into equities in highly leveraged and troubled companies, which the Governor had announced on the last policy day, he said the RBI is in discussions with the SEBI for the details.
“Recently, in the Companies Act also there was some tweaking to help this out. So we will finalise with the SEBI.
We are discussing with SEBI on the pricing part in particular.
SEBI has its own rules and the responsibilities to protect minority shareholders’ interest vis-a-vis bankers’ own requirement,” he said.
Link Hindu Business Line
After FM Meeting, CHV Now Prepares Ground for Calling Off 4 day Strike and Even Settle for Lower Wage Hike-By Rajesh Goyal
(source allbankingsolutions.com)
Immediately after meeting FM and issuing its circular, CHV appears to have launched full scale media blitz to prepare ground for calling of 4 day strike and even settle for lower wage hike.
The last round of negotiations between the unions and the IBA, held on 3 February, failed after the IBA offered a 13% hike compared to 12.5% offered earlier. But this was still much lower than the 19.5% demanded by the unions. Bank wages are revised every five years. The present round of wage hike is pending since November 2012.The finance minister was aware of the pending wage hike issue, but preferred not to quantify the percentage increase in wages that should be agreed upon, according to All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam. “He said your demands are genuine but banks have their own constraints. There should be a convergence of both demands soon, but in the interim you should keep the talks on,” said C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of AIBEA.
After FM Meeting, CHV Now Prepares Ground for Calling Off 4 day Strike and Even Settle for Lower Wage Hike-By Rajesh Goyal
(source allbankingsolutions.com)
Immediately after meeting FM and issuing its circular, CHV appears to have launched full scale media blitz to prepare ground for calling of 4 day strike and even settle for lower wage hike.
Give give below some of his quotes which have appeared in LiveMint today. These will give insight to the bankers as to what is happening behind the curtain :-
The news item says :
Bank unions may call off a planned four-day nationwide strike starting 25 February and settle for lower wage hikes than earlier demanded, after finance minister Arun Jaitley asked union leaders to resolve differences with bank managements.
Union leaders will meet representatives of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), the apex bankers’ lobby, on Friday for conciliatory talks to resolve the pending wage issues in the presence of chief labour commissioner P.P. Mitra.
Union leaders will meet representatives of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), the apex bankers’ lobby, on Friday for conciliatory talks to resolve the pending wage issues in the presence of chief labour commissioner P.P. Mitra.
The last round of negotiations between the unions and the IBA, held on 3 February, failed after the IBA offered a 13% hike compared to 12.5% offered earlier. But this was still much lower than the 19.5% demanded by the unions. Bank wages are revised every five years. The present round of wage hike is pending since November 2012.The finance minister was aware of the pending wage hike issue, but preferred not to quantify the percentage increase in wages that should be agreed upon, according to All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam. “He said your demands are genuine but banks have their own constraints. There should be a convergence of both demands soon, but in the interim you should keep the talks on,” said C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of AIBEA.
While the IBA started the negotiation process with a pay hike proposal of 5%, unions demanded 25%. Negotiations stalled in 2014 and employees stayed off work several times. In 2010, the last time wages were revised, both sides settled on a hike of 17.5%. The last hike, however, included pension and gratuity, while this time the hike is being calculated only on the pay slip component.
While the finance minister did not explicitly ask unions to call off the proposed four-day strike, Venkatachalam interprets it as a message to unions to not resort to strikes.
While the finance minister did not explicitly ask unions to call off the proposed four-day strike, Venkatachalam interprets it as a message to unions to not resort to strikes.
“No finance minister of a country will want strikes. We told the finance minister that we also don’t want strikes, but we want to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We are aware about banks’ problems and we are ready to amicably settle the issue with IBA provided they show some flexibility,” Venkatachalam said.
“For about 40 minutes, we explained our issues to him and (the) finance minister gave a very patient hearing with positive observations on some of the issues raised by us,” according to a circular to members issued by AIBEA and the All India Bank Officers’ Association, the two largest bank unions of the country.
Further Comments by ABS :
“For about 40 minutes, we explained our issues to him and (the) finance minister gave a very patient hearing with positive observations on some of the issues raised by us,” according to a circular to members issued by AIBEA and the All India Bank Officers’ Association, the two largest bank unions of the country.
Further Comments by ABS :
It is already being questioned by only two union leaders met Finance Minister when nine unions of UFBU are negotiating for the 10th BPS. Did these two unions take the mandate of UFBU to meet FM or took their unilateral decision to meeting FM. Where UFBU were informed about the meeting in advance, and if so what was the view of other 7 unions in this matter.
Has Government / IBA has been able to divide UFBU by giving so called "patient hearing by FM" only to two union leaders. We have yet to hear from other UFBU. Their silence is intriguing. Whether they too are part of the bigger gameplan to scuttle the forthcoming 4 day strike. To get the truth, I think bankers have to wait for their view point as any conjuctures at this movement by us will only further divide UFBU, which we are not interested to do.
This is a predicted outcome ;;strike will be called off even if there was no meeting;it was previously planned by CHV
ReplyDeleteSurjit nayak is right in his observations to a great extent. whatever it may be it should be to the benefit of all whether in service or retired
ReplyDelete