Pensioners to wake up to Developments in Allahabad High Court.

 Important – Pensioners to wake up to developments in Allahabad High Court.

Friends,

Collected from Whatsapp Messsage

I write with reference to the WP filed by the “We Bankers United Forum” in Allahabad High Court which now stands posted to 22.10.2020. This WP aims at getting an Arbitrator to be appointed by the GOI staying the Bipartite Settlement which is presently proceeding to the detriment of the pensioners. In my view this is the best development that has happened because this move alone can bring the much required pressure on GOI to agree to the Updation of Pension and for the eventual appointment of a Pay Commision for Bank employees. The civil servants in the GOI are on their move to mislead the High Court. When the Central Labour Commissioner has already reported to GOI that the Conciliation Proceedings have failed (and the next step is only appointing an Arbitrator), the Civil servants are misleading the Court that this is not true. The Pensioners can get maximum justice only from an Arbitrator or Pay Commission presided over by a Judge.

The pensioners have been taken for a ride by all concerned for much too long. Our interests have been totally neglected by all concerned for decades – be it the Working Staff Federations, the Managements of Banks, the IBA or the Department of Finance of GOI. Each of them have their own vested interests compelling them to ignore the legitimate entitlements of the pensioners. The Working Staff Unions never bothered in the past to negotiate and allocate a portion of the amount of the wage settlement for the pensioners. This suited the Bank Managements and IBA who are only interested in their profits. The pensioners Federations have been deliberately kept out from participating in the BPS talks. Even when the pension Rules of SBI and the other Nationalised Banks empower the concerned Banks’ Central Boards to revise the pensions, the Bank Managements never took steps in this direction for fear of drawing the ire of the Finance Department of GOI. The SBI Pension Rules provide that prior permission of RBI and GOI must be taken only for publishing the decisions on matters relating to pensions in the GOI Gazette and for placing such notifications on the table of the Parliament. The Rules do not require prior permission for revising the pension by the Central Board. The DFS has been standing in the way even though they are aware that pensions are paid from the Pension Fund and not from Bank’s profits. The DFS are interested only in increasing the profits of State owned Banks and getting the profits transferred to GOI.

The recent developments in the current BPS talks is well known. Some of the Working Staff Unions have no genuine interest in the issue of Pension Revision. These Unions and the IBA, hand in glove, are somehow managing to ensure that the wage increase for Working Staff is finalised in the next few days by signing a Joint Note. “MOU” and “Joint Notes” are nothing but agreements and they are no different from the word “Settlement”. These are mere technical words to hoodwink the ignorant and helpless pensioners. When once agreed wages are implemented, neither the Staff Unions nor the Banks nor the IBA will pursue the pensioners’ issues seriously and they will all be forgotten.

In my view, the move made by the “We Bankers United Forum” in the Allahabad High Court is the only and the best way as of now to get the pensioners' issues solved. This is the only way by which the sinister motives of the IBA and the Working Staff Organisations who are disinterested in pensioners’ interests can be thwarted. This is the only way now left for us, the pensioners, to awaken the GOI and make them  agree to the Pension Updation. During the last few months, the pensioners have toiled hard individually and collectively and tried all possible methods they can think of to achieve the goal, but they are still unable to wake up the sleeping giant. Now the WP in the Allahabad High Court is the last opportunity for the pensioners.

It is, therefore, necessary that the “We Bankers” move must be fully supported by all pensioners. There is a need for this move to be widely circulated in the Whatsapp groups, on the social media as well as in the press/TV etc., so as to ensure that the message knocks the doors of the powers that be. When a loud message reaches the GOI, then only we can expect that the long awaited justice will be received by the pensioners.

Best wishes to all.

N.R. Raghavendra Rao.

N.R.R Rao

C-49 Road No. 10,

Filmnagar, Jubilee Hills,

Hyderabad 500 096

Ph:  Mobile 9491881620  Landline+91 40 2354-5154

(Pl share this post to as many friend groups as possible. 

Let us break the conspiracy hatched by the Negotiating team with all our efforts.)