UFBU Uncertain On Strike

UFBU yet to decide on bank strike

 

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) is yet to decide on observing strike from January 21 to 24 and an indefinite strike from March 19. 

 The UFBO comprising the AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, INBOC and NOBW had given a call for strike in the month of December to put pressure on the Indian Bank Association (IBA) for 25 per cent enhancement in their wages.
The decision to observe strike was put on hold on January 6 following the positive attitude of the IBA. 

  Speaking to Jalandhar Tribune, UFBO representative Amrit Lal said there was a lot of resentment among the bank employees about the rigid attitude of the government regarding the demand for wage revision. The UFBU had demanded 25 per cent increase in wages and reduced their offer to 23 per cent but the IBA was adamant and had offered only an increase of 11 per cent in the wages. The employees were not satisfied with a meagre increase in wages.

 He said a meeting between the representative of the IBA and the United Forum of Bank Employees was held on January 6 where the matter of wage revision was discussed. The IBA revised its offer from an increase of 11 per cent to 12.5 per cent. Thereafter, the scheduled strike of January 7 was deferred to January 21-24 and the indefinite strike from March 19. 

 Amrit Lal said the UFBU expected further increase in wages. Therefore, a meeting will be held to decide the future course of action. The strike has not been called off as yet, he added.

Govt banks may remain shut for 6 days if talks with govt fail-Tims of India 19.01.2015

Nainital: Those who need to make use of banking services in the next few days should go ahead immediately. Government banks across the state could remain closed for six days starting from January 21.

The employees of government banks have planned a four-day strike from January 21 to January 24 in the state in case talks by Indian Bank Association in Mumbai with the government on Monday fails. The talks are to be held on the issue of implementation of the 10th pay band pending for at least two years now. If so, then, the strike will stretch on to six full days as January 25 is Sunday and January 26, Republic Day.

"Huge wage discrepancies in the wages of bank employees need serious attention but our demands went unheard for at least three years now. The statewide strike proposed on January 7 was called off by the bank unions after intervention of the IBA and Centre," said Pravin Shah, president of the Uttarakhand Bank Employees Union.

Around 1,500 branches of government banks will remain closed in the state for almost a week causing a loss running into Rs 500 crore a day. The employees of government banks are planning a four-day strike demanding to implement of 10th pay band pending for at least two years now.

Earlier, employees of government banks had gone on strike for a day on December 3, stalling transactions worth Rs 500 crore. People had to use to ATMs of government and private banks to make withdrawls.

Since 2012, as many as 16 rounds of negotiations have failed to end the stalemate reach an agreement between central government and banks, said union members. The negotiations with the central government failed to reach to an agreement acceptable to all stakeholders.

Tapping private sector, younger talent for top job at govt banks-Business Standard 19.01.2015

Like the recent appointments, this time as well, PSBs would have a non-executive chairman, giving operational responsibility to the MD and CEO

 

With three key public sector banks (PSBs) still headless, the government is hastening the process of appointments of their managing directors (MDs), sources have said.

 As part of the process, new advertisements will be issued with varied appointment criteria. The candidate will be expected to have at least two to three years of remaining service. Applications from the private sector will be invited as well. The government will not compromise on the experience and insist the applicants have at least 10-15 years of banking experience, with four years at upper management.

 

 Currently, the government-appointed panel needs to fill posts of MDs in three category-A banks -Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank.

 The government had last month appointed R Kotees-waran and Animesh Chauhan of Bank of India and Kishore Kumar Sansi of Punjab & Sind Bank as managing directors and chief executive officers of Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Vijaya Bank, respectively.

 

As already reported, it has been decided that PSBs are to have a non-executive chairman, giving operational responsibility to the managing director and chief executive officer.

 The post of chairman and managing director (CMD) of Bank of Baroda has been vacant since July 31, 2014 while Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank have been headless since October, 2014.

 

 The appointments for these posts will be finalised after the candidates are interviewed by a panel headed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan.

 The shortlisted names will be sent to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and subsequently to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). Meantime, the process for vigilance and other necessary clearances would be undertaken.

 

 In October last year, the government had cancelled the selection of heads of six state-run banks, beside 14 executive directors (EDs), as a government-appointed panel had found irregularities in the process. These appointments had been made during the tenure of the earlier government.

 

 Splitting of the CMD's post was suggested by RBI to the finance ministry. RBI had contended the CMDs of PSBs dominated their board of directors and separating the post of CMD would aid in empowering the board.

 

 On December 25, a government-selected panel for appointments at PSBs conducted interviews and shortlisted 15 general managers for appointments as EDs in state-run banks. 

ALL  INDIA  BANK  OFFICERS'  ASSOCIATION

 

 

CIRCULAR No.3/VI/2015

January 15,2015

 

TO

ALL UNITS / STATE COMMITTEES

 

 .

Dear Comrades,

 

SUB COMMITTEE MEET ON OFFICERS' ISSUES.

 

 

While concluding the 15th round of discussions on 7th Jan,2015,it was mutually agreed to discuss the issues listed in the charter of demands of respective categories in a small committee and also the Hospitalisation Scheme. Accordingly, three committees have been formed by IBA to address the issues pending for resolution and the information was also released by IBA in this regard.

 

In this background, the subcommittee to address the issues of the officers met on 14th Jan,2015 at IBA office, Mumbai. IBA team was led by Shri. Ashwini Kumar, Chairman Dena Bank, Shri. V.S.Krishna Kumar, CEO Canara Bank, Shri. Shalilesh Verma, CGM, SBI, Shri. M.V.Tanksale CEO IBA, Shri.K.Unnikrishnan.Dy.CEO IBA ,besides officials of HR department of IBA.

 

The officers' subcommittee was led by Com.K.K.Nair,Chairman UFBU/General Secretary INBOC, Com. G.V .Manimaran, Vice President AIBOC, Dr.S.U.Deshpande,General Secretary NOBO besides the undersigned representing our organisation.

 

In three hours long discussions, the following issues have been taken up for a detailed presentation from our side. [1]. Discipline and Appeal Regulations- Amendments,[2]. Regulated Working Hours and [3]. 5 days working.

 

 On Discipline and Regulations, this round of discussion is second sitting, which centered around the implementation of the earlier decisions of IBA pending with Government ie CVC jurisdiction to Board level appointees and one level below the board level appointees, time limit for the disposal of the Appeals and submission of the Appeal by the officer directly to the Appellate Authority instead of routing through Disciplinary Authority, guidelines on Revocation or continuation of suspension, classification of Misconduct, Effects of Punishments, Removal of the restriction on number of cases to be handled by Defence Assistance, extension of defence by Retired officers etc were presented by the team. A special emphasis was placed that the Accountability Policy in the matter of credit decisions should be more of officer friendly to facilitate the officers to take decisions to develop the business of the Banks. The experts engaged by the Bank ie Legal Advisers, Valuers and CAs are in one way or other instrumental in the retail advances getting into crisis in most of the Banks. Officers are to be protected from this work situation prevailing by and large in all Banks.

 

On Regulated working hours for officers, a detailed document supported by the communication from government of India, RBI decision to have flexi hours with 8 hours of work and IDBI circular on the captioned subject that 44 Hours of work per week was presented to the IBA team. Our presentation was more focused to evole a scientific manpower policy and also exploring the possibility of technology enabled solutions for completing day end activities at the back office. There were strong observations about the officers not staying in the headquarters and also the branch functioning on consecutive holidays by the IBA team. Our team was more emphatic for defined working hours rather than for any alternative compensatory concept to be brought in as a part of the package.

 

On 5 day working, it was informed  by the IBA team that Chairman IBA has already taken up with Government and development in this regard will be communicated to us in due course of time. While folding up the discussions, at the end, there was an Appeal made by the CEO IBA that the proposed strike action would alone precipitate the solution to the situation. It was further informed that the proposals would be placed before HR Committee of IBA and subsequently to be placed before Management Committee for arriving at an appropriate understandings.

 

Comrades, we have been given to understand that there is a communication emanated from IBA addressed to the convenor UFBU, assuring to arrive at the conclusion of the present wage revision discussion on 15th Feb,2015,which was also earlier expressed  by Shri. Rajeev Rishi, Chairman, Negotiating Team IBA on 7th Jan,2015. The other two sub committees are scheduled to meet on 19th Jan 2015 at 10.30am and other one at2.00 pm at Mumbai. UFBU has convened a meeting at Mumbai on 19th Jan 2015 at 5.00pm to take stock of the situation.

 

AIBOA stands for clinching the issue of Regulated Working Hours,5 days working, Amendments to Discipline and Appeal Regulations and Reasonable and Respectable wage increase commensurate with Risk, Responsibility, Accountability and Transferability of officers community.

 

Await for further communication,

 

Yours Comradely,

 S.NAGARAJAN.

GENERAL SECRETARY.

Why Central Govt Employees Who Fail In Their Duties Are Paid More AND Bank Employees Are Denied?

WHERE DO WE STAND VIS-À-VIS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT STAFF?

Unfortunately, our own comrades cite the mounting NPAs and the consequential lower profits as the valid reason for the inability of the banks to pay more to their staff. I give hereunder certain statistics to refute the above argument and to buttress my case.
Fiscal Deficit:​

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/features/indias-deficit-test-doable-after-all_1269703.html

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/fiscal-deficit-in-apr-nov-touches-99-pc-of-budget-estimate/24959/

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/fiscal-deficit-in-april-november-hits-99-of-budget-estimate/24978/

As per this, the fiscal deficit of the country at the end of November, 2014 was Rs.5,25,134 crores (for 8 months period). At the end of March, 2015, it is expected to cross Rs.6,79,272 crores or 5.24% of GDP (if GDP falls short of the target, then in percentage terms, the fiscal deficit may touch 5.36%). It may be recalled that the Budget Estimate of Fiscal Deficit for 2014-15 was Rs.531,177 crores.

Revenue Deficit:

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/fiscal-deficit-in-april-november-hits-99-of-budget-estimate/24978/

The data showed that the revenue deficit during the period of first 8 months of 2014-15 was Rs.411,075 crores or 108.6% of the BE. At the end of March, 2015, the revenue deficit may touch Rs.6,16,612 crores, as against the budget estimate of Rs.373,848 crores.
Taxes unrecovered:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/rs-2-lakh-crore-tax-dues-cannot-be-recovered-113042900444_1.html

It is officially reported that Rs.5,86,002 crores of taxes are yet to be recovered and a substantial portion of them is locked up in disputes. Nearly, 5% of them are irrecoverable too, because the assessees are not traceable.

In the above backdrop, central government employees earn 40% higher salaries than bankers and enjoy much better service conditions and living conditions. Thus it is clear that there is no correlation between the financial health of an organization and its paying capacity.

Now, you tell me. Don’t bank staff who shoulder greater risks and responsibilities deserve a hike of not less than 50% in their salaries?
Or at least parity with central government staff in salaries and all other service conditions?

Date: 16-01-2015 pannvalan

RBI Wants Auditors To Be More Responsible

RBI asks bank auditors to have a stringent monitoring process-Business StandardMumbai      

January 16, 2015

Pointing to the gaps in the auditors' work, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to adopt a more stringent auditing process to ensure that review of financial results and identification of fraud is done more promptly.RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra said there is a greater need to take a closer look into the asset quality, instances of restructuring of advances, provisioning held, etc. to ensure that there was no divergence with regard to asset classifications and provisions held.

"The point I am trying to make is that if RBI inspectors are able to identify these divergences in the limited time-frame that they are on-site, why the banks' auditors are not able to do so…Is it a question of efficiency of the auditors or is there a much deeper issue - something to do with the transparency of the process itself?," he asked while addressing members of the Audit Committee of the Boards (ACB) of ICICI Bank subsidiaries & other bank employees.

With regards to provisions, he told banks that adequate provisions should be made for post-retirement benefits like pension, gratuity and leave encashment, etc. and the auditors should ask more pertinent questions to the banks with regards to provisioning requirements

"It is important that the ACB asks the right questions to the management about various underlying assumptions that go into computation of the required provisions such as life expectancy, discount rate, expected return on investments, etc. I urge the ACBs to ask uncomfortable questions," he said in his speech.

In light of instances of know-your-customer (KYC) norms violation Mundra has urged auditors to be stricter with the process of background check. Last month, RBI had imposed penalties on ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda for flouting KYC and anti money laundering norms.

"I believe that the absence of an appropriate punitive mechanism in the banks for lapses has also contributed to their recurrence. Therefore, our expectations from the ACBs would be to closely focus on reasons for such regulatory penalties/sanctions and seek a root-cause analysis for preventing recurrence," he added.

My Comments on auditors' role is very old and is reproduced below.

Officials of RBI and GOI normally sleep and remain dormant controller of banks and think it wise ,safe and prudent to be silent spectator of all irregularities and malfunctioning of these banks as also functioning of financial institutes in general until they are awakened by some outside forces or depositors affected by failure of corrupt bank. However to safeguard their skin, clever officials of so called regulators bodies always use to get certificate of good health of banks from panel auditors . They never bother to verify and ascertain the genuineness of these certificates .

Majority of top ranked officials are made happy by promoters and managers of these banks through costly gifts and cash bribe. Even statutory and regular Auditors appointed to check health of banks are bought by clever officials of banks after extending red carpet welcome to them and after offering attractive bribe and costly gifts for ensuring issuance of certificate of health and for final submission of these certificates to their regulating bodies including Ministry of Finance and RBI

And in this way ,cancer of corruption is allowed to perpetuate grow until it explodes and collapses to end.

Finally a committee is set up to investigate the reasons of failure or to find out the modus oparandi of loot of the bank but action is never taken against any erring officials and to stop happening of such incident in future at other banks because most of them are under patronage of powerful political leaders who were bought during good days of the bank.

This is why story of collapse of banks never ends despite the fact that Indian political leaders and Government of India use to claim every now and then that Indian financial Institutes including banks and chit funds are more safe and sound and there is no risk of failure and no need for depositors to worry.


 RBI has also been cautioning consumers against the rising case of credit card and other frauds. Mundra called upon greater sensitivity and increased focus from auditors with regards to having appropriate measures in place to prevent instances of fraud.

"In our recently concluded scrutiny into fixed deposit related frauds in some banks, it emerged that even the caution advices issued by RBI in respect of certain individuals had not percolated down to the branch officials quickly enough to enable appropriate preventive measures… I would say that ACBs should take upon themselves to monitor the trend of frauds, assimilate key learnings and ensure that mitigation measures are put in place by the management," he added.

What I Wrote three years ago is as follows

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (Icai), the apex body of accounting professionals, wants the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to appoint statutory auditors in state-run banks. The accountants’ body has sought the government intervention on this. Till 2005, RBI was directly involved in the appointment of auditors, but now the boards of public sector banks (PSBs) appoints auditors in consultation with the central bank. Until 2005, the appointment of auditors in state-run banks was overseen by an appointments committee with representation from RBI, Icai and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

 

 

“If appointments are left to bank managements, there may be a tendency to take short-cuts in these regards with possible ultimate deleterious effects on the financial health of the PSBs,”

 

“This process compromises the independence of auditors and gives an incentive for promotion of vested interest in the appointment of auditors.”

 

Bankers, experts and consultants criticized Icai’s move, saying this is unlikely to make any major difference in the quality of auditing. Also, any changes in these aspects should equally apply to private and foreign banks as well, as they also deal with public money

“In many cases, auditors do not see eye-to-eye with bank managements (on issues such as) like NPA (non-performing assets) provisioning, implementation of prudential norms, etc., and this is the reason auditors are at all appointed. There must always be somebody who will not look at the business from the point of view of the management, and who will look and act at it from the point of view of good governance,”
 
“The real issue is not independence, but the quality of auditing, which has seen deterioration in many cases in the recent past,”

I submit my views on above mentioned opinion of ICAI

 

I fully agree that RBI should appoint auditors for conducting statutory audit of various banks and CA should be held responsible, accountable and punishable if they fail to point out the fraudulent and illegal behavior of bank management. Auditors least bother of faults or fraud committed by banks because it is ultimately banks who will appoint them and pay them charges and extend comforts as per their desire.

 

Similarly in case of audit of private businessmen and service class people, auditors prepare good balance sheet ignoring all bad points so that they may be paid attractive fees. The more fees they charge, the more auditors will guide ways of tax evasion, concealment of facts related of violation of laws, avoidance of statutory provisions etc.

 

In brief I can say that auditors are best blackmailers and they can go to any extent against the interest of the government if they are adequately compensated for their advices. It is seen that auditors prepare balance sheet as per need of the businessmen who are inclined to avail higher amount of loans from banks. CA almost works as agent of businessmen and it is they who motivate bank officials for inflated lending in return of attractive bribe money.

 

As of now none is held responsible for the act of omission and commission. Banks blame auditors and auditor s blame banks for ongoing and perpetual fraudulent activities undertaken by bank management. Auditors are paid huge amount for auditing but they seldom check into records of banks and try to complete statutory audit even at big branches in a day or two even though they claim the bill for three or four days..

 

It is only when Branch Manager of a branch fails to give best quality of hospitability to auditors or fail to give precious gifts to some corrupt and greedy auditors that auditors try to teach lesson to bank officials and mention even non-mentionable irregularities in their audit report. Similarly at regional or zonal or corporate level various officers of the bank are entrusted the duties of entertaining, hotelling, visiting picnic spots and gifting the team of auditors to get best rating and best reports ignoring all vital information. I have seen many auditors even calling branch officials in hotel with money and gifts and signing financial reports blindly.

 

Unfortunately RBI officials also do not want to have headache of process of appointment and then controlling of auditors. Banks are violating important rules and laws in concurrence with RBI officials. Assets are not classified as per RBI norms of assets classification and income is booked against income recognition norms set by RBI and for this purpose auditors, bankers and regulating agencies dance as puppet of businessmen who spend money for getting illegal benefits from bank, from government and from RBI.As such even if duty of appointment of auditors is restored to RBI, corruption is not going to end. As long as actions are not taken against evil doers, there will not be any fear in the mind of neither bankers nor auditors.

 

Million dollar question is who will bell the cat? All are birds of the same feather. Money and only money play the role. The more the bribe is offered, the shorter becomes the eyes and ears of auditors, and also that of all regulating and investigating agencies.

 

Auditors do not perform auditing to safeguard rule of law and ensure following of accounting principles or for tax compliance in true spirit but play the role of mediating between borrowers and bankers, between tax officials and tax evaders and between law makers and law breakers.

 It is auditors who prepares financial statement suitable for sanction of certain amount of loan and who motivates bankers for sanction of the same. It is auditors who teaches businessmen how to avoid payment of taxes and who motivate tax assessing authority to put their signature on assessment orders.

Bankers similarly do not care for safety of their bank but work for self interest. Tax officials do not work for collecting maximum revenue in line with prevalent laws but to help tax evaders so that he or she can get his share through backdoor.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that it is auditors who help in creation of black money in the country in nexus with tax officials and it is again auditors who in nexus with bankers and businessmen help in creation and accumulation of more and more bad assets in bank’s loan portfolio.

 

http://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/rbi-asks-bank-auditors-to-have-a-stringent-monitoring-process-115011600005_1.html

Bank Employes Starts Work To Rule

Bank officers to ‘work-to-rule’ over pay hike row-By L N Revathy
--Hindu Business Line-12th October 2014

The All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) has decided to stick to office hours and not attend office on Sundays/ holidays and extended office hours with effect from Monday.

The AIBOC Executive Committee has also authorised the leadership to decide about a strike for minimum of two days along with other constituents of UFBU (United Forum of Bank Unions) in the first week of November to press their demand for early settlement of wage revision.

 

Sharing details of AIBOC's Executive Committee discussions at Delhi, District President of AIBOC, Coimbatore J Vanangamudi told Business Line that the committee had, among others, discussed wage revision for officers, working conditions and other issues including stringent action against bank loan defaulters. 

 

Voicing criticism about the unrelenting stand of the IBA, he said "we have created a record of sorts in financial inclusion, implemented various policies and programmes of the government, but the IBA is adamant even towards our genuine salary revision demand. We have therefore decided to withdraw extra co-operation by strictly observing office hours, not attend office on Sundays and holidays. We are also planning a massive rally at Jantar Mantar on October 13, country-wide protest demonstrations with UFBU constituents on October 17 and one-day dharna between Oct 18 and Oct 31 at all State capitals".

Link Hindu Business Line

Wage revision: AIBOC critical of bank body
Bangalore, Oct 12, 2014, DHNS:
Following the meeting of the Executive Committee of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), at Delhi, the confederation said the committee was critical of the adamant stand of the IBA towards the demands of the officers and called for the withdrawal of their extra co-operation.

 The committee discussed the major issue of wage revision for officers, working conditions of officers and many other is...sues including stringent action against Bank loan defaulters.
The statement said the committee decided to launch a programme to draw the attention of the Government towards adamant attitude of IBA and the need to meet the genuine demand of salary revision for officers.
The EC has decided that from October 13, 2014 officers will withdraw extra co-operation by strictly observing office hours and not attend office on Sundays/ Holidays and for extended office hours.





AllBankingSolutions.com Now Writes to PMO :   Will UFBU  Join Us In Follow Up For Reply from PMO?-Rajesh Goyal



I have written number of articles on the pathetic attitude of UFBU and its individual union leaders since 1st November, 2012 i.e. the date from which 10th BPS has become due.  Some of our enlightened contributors too have been in the forefront to send us full fledged articles with excellent analysis / suggestions for the union leaders.  Other less active readers, who in thousands in number,  have given their suggestions through comments columns used at the end of each article.   But these have no impact on the UFBU leaders except that they have forced to counter some of such arguments.

At our website we have requested  UFBU to send the Charter of Demands at least six months in advance.   However, they miserably failed and the Charter of Demand was submitted only and only on the day prior to the date when the new Wage Revision was due (31/10/2012).   Thus, there was no doubt that it never be implemented from the due date even if IBA and GoI desired so (and bankers were bound to lose interest on delayed payments).    However, we were criticized by leaders of UFBU and their die hard supporters for questioning the delay in submission of Charter of Demand.

 

After this there was no unanimity among the UFBU and nobody made any serious attempt for about 10 months to demand fortnightly meeting with IBA, and thus BPS started getting delayed.    Every Indian citizen was aware that General Elections to Lok Sabha will be held in May 2014 and after that future of Congress is uncertain.   ABS  through its articles took the initiative of reminding UFBU (right from November 2013 onwards) about the forthcoming Lok Sabha and need for early settlement of the BPS.    We also wrote that the best time is to get a settlement finalised before elections as at that time politicians do not want to antagonize any group and ready to dole out even higher increases.    However, ABS was again snubbed by the union leaders and their supporters and some of them openly wrote in social media that elections will have no impact on the progress of the 10th BPS negotiations and talks will continue during the elections and we will get better wage settlement after the elections. 

 

 

IIgnoring all the above suggestions given in my articles and various suggestions given by our readers through other articles and comments, is something all criminal negligence on the part of UFBU.  Now Aam Banker has landed in a situation where IBA is offering merely 11% and UFBU leaders do not have enough courage to take on the stable BJP Government as wrong tough stand can finish their careers.   Communist parties and other opposition parties, to which almost all the UFBU member unions are affiliated have no say in government policies.   Even Congress is fighting for its survival and have fought tooth and nail to get the post of Leader of Opposition.   They have failed as Mr.  Modi is too strong for them too. 

                                     

In the given circumstances, there is a stalemate.   Thus, in this scenario when I listened to the speech of Mr Modi at Mumbai (already uploaded by us  as
 "Now Modi Himself Praises Bankers and Acknowledge Their Untiring Efforts In Meeting His Dream of Jan Dhan Yojana – UFBU leaders Must Go and Meet PM and Gear Up to Highlight This and Ask IBA and Ministry of Finance to Give Honourable Settlement"  by Rajesh Goyal  (uploaded on 05/10/2014)  there was a ray of hope.                    

 

Later on a press release  came to our knowledge and we wrote another article.  (News Update at PMO website - PM Office Praises Excellent Work by Bankers - Bank Unions On Backfoot.  Will Modi Make Bank Unions (UFBU) Irrelevant in Few Months ?  by Rajesh Goyal  (uploaded on 08/10/2014) ).                      

 

I wrote the above referred two articles  as there was a ray of hope.    These articles were read and appreciated by lakhs of bankers across all the banks and across the country (of course, certain people continue to doubt the credentials of new PM) .    Instead of grabbing the God sent opportunity and opening channels with new Government (wth Mr Narendra Modi as PM who wishes to implement his Jan Dhan Yojana through banks), Union leaders started talking about untouchable BJP and Narendra Modi.   There was also a campaign to malign AllBankingSolutions.com and dub us as following the agenda of BJP.   Some of the union leaders (on social media ) even challenged us to approach Prime Minister and arrange a meeting.  

                                     

I was wondering that union leaders who claim following of lakhs of bankers and who receive crores of rupees on monthly basis as subscription, are asking a retired banker like me to arrange for meeting with Prime Minister.  

                   Although at present my financial position is not precarious yet I have only limited resources and can not launch all India level agitation from my own retirement funds.   Let me remind our readers that  being retired I feel I do not have the mandate and energy to lead such a massive movement where more and more youngsters are joining.   After lot of tussle in my mind, I decided to write to PMO on this issue and request them to break this deadlock.  

                                    

I visited www.pmindia.gov.in/en/  and then registered myself under the heading "Interact with Hon'ble PM"  (http://pmindia.gov.in/en/interact-with-honble-pm/) on 8th October, 2014.  .  This is the website where anybody can register.   I am not sure whether all the UFBU leaders have their accounts under this website (or they consider this website also untouchable as it has our PM Narendra Modi's photo).     Even after registering, it took me a day to decide whether it will be good idea to write to PMO in my individual capacity, when I am not the stakeholder directly.  (I am retired and not holding any post of union / organization, and my salary is not going to be revised under this BPS).  Whether such a move will be appreciated by UFBU or it will be termed as something like my hidden agenda.  

                 

Anyway, finally I decided to write a letter and post the same. at the website of PMO. I decided to be frank and write the truth to PMO and not seek anything for me but for the general bankers and UFBU.  The following is the broad write up sent to PMO :-

 

"Sir, I am a retired banker and now work as a free lancer and regularly write my views on financial matters at our website www.allbankingsolutions.com, which has a huge following on internet and on an average these days over 1,00,000 (one lakh) pages are viewed on DAILY basis.   Visitors are bankers as well as non bankers. Recently, we have written two articles appreciating the PM,  Shri Narendra Modi’s speech at Mumbai election rally and the News Update by  PMO relating to the acknowledgement of the excellent role played by bankers in make successful the Jan Dhan Yojana, the links for which are as follows:- http://allbankingsolutions.com/Wage-Revision/Xth-Bipartite-Settlement/Modi-praises-bankers.htm http://www.allbankingsolutions.com/Wage-Revision/Xth-Bipartite-Settlement/PMO-praises-bankers.htm Both these articles have been read by few lakh bankers across India. These articles have evoked keen interest of the bankers towards Modi Government, but bank unions (almost all of them have affiliation to opposition parties) are not feeling comfortable with our views (as some of them feel BJP and Mr Modi to be untouchable as USA used to feel a few months back) and challenging  us to approach PM for a meeting.  Therefore, we have decided to make a request through your office not for us but for Aam Banker.   We  know it will be extremely difficult to spare time for PM, but we would like to put on record that there are about 10 lakh bankers and alongwith their families they have lot of influence in almost all spheres of life and creating goodwill for the Government.    Therefore, we request you to please  arrange a meeting of UFBU leaders with PM (www.allbankingsolutions.com is  not part of that group).     In the meantime, we would request you to update us about the steps being taken by union government to settle the issue of Wage Revision for bankers  which was due on 1/11/2012, and a stalemate is continuing as IBA is not budging to go beyond offer of 11%.    An email to us from PMO about the status can defuse lot of tension through which a banker is passing these days.               We will be pleased to offer any help needed by PMO to ensure that PM’s views /message reaches the bankers across the country, and an awareness is created  among bankers about the vision of PM.  (we have visitors across all banks, across all States and across all union members).  We are not affiliated to any political party.   I hope you will consider our above requests,  as we are making these requests on behalf of  Aam banker who slogs daily in branch for hours beyond his normal working hours. With highest regards, Rajesh Goyal"

On submitting the above write up, the website showed the message that it has been successfully submitted.  However, we have yet to receive any email confirmation about its finally reaching PMO.

 

After submitting the above write up through online website, I was again in dilemma whether to share this email with our readers immediately or wait for few days and then share the reply or non receipt of the reply.   After three days of mental tussle, I decided to share the same with our readers on 13th October 2014.

 

Anyway now the above write up has been submitted by me on behalf of Aam Banker, but certain questions remain to be answered for which I would like to get suggestions from our readers :-

(a) Why UFBU is hesitant to take up the matter directly with PMO when this facility is available online?   Why some union leaders  are questioning my credentials and they want that I should write to PM and arrange a meeting.  Are they afraid of approaching PM? If yes, why?   How we can prompt these leaders so that they open the channels with new PM;

 

(b) In case the above referred letter / write  has been received and read by PMO officials,  there are following  possibilities :

                  (i) It may be considered as a complaint / suggestion from an entity which has no legal backing and thus may be considered as not worth replying and sent to dustbin ;

                  (ii) It may considered as a complaint on behalf of lakhs of bankers and PMO  might have already been initiated some action at some level and some suo motto announcements may be made, but no reply sent to us;

                  (iii) There may be reply to our  query in the routine matter and without any benefits to bankers.  We will have the satisfaction that we did our duty for the Aam Banker but our system does not allow us to go further.

 

In case a reply is received, it will be wonderful and we will be able to seek further suggestions from our readers.   However, in case no reply is received by us from PMO, then question will arise as to how it can be followed up with PMO ? Anybody who has knowledge about the system followed by PMO may inform us about the same so that we can start preparing for the same.

 

(c) Now ABS has taken this initiative, should UFBU not help us in follow up

 

 

 

 with PMO to get a reply? Is ABS too is untouchable as Mr Modi? 

 

 

(d) In case ABS does not get reply and UFBU too fails to take the initiative to approach PMO, what other options should ABS explore to end this stalemate?.   One option we are considering is giving a paid advertisement in one or two newspapers, as UFBU has never agreed to take this route even on earlier occasions.   What will be the cost of giving such an advertisements (making an appeal to PM) in some prominent newspapers by ABS ?.  (No collection to be made but to be contributed exclusively by ABS).   Readers who are associated with publicity departments  of respective banks can send me some of the quotes for our review whether we can really bear such a cost?   OR should it be done by UFBU as suggested by us and our readers in comments on many occasions ?  The suggestions for contents of appeal  to be given in newspapers (to be very brief) can be uploaded in comments column or sent to us through email.

Based on the suggestions of our readers and reply / no reply  from PMO, we will review whether ABS has to follow up the issue or UFBU will take up this responsibility  as they collect members subscription and thus are answerable to their cadre.

 

 

I know we have initiated a new Chapter at social media to counter the ineffective UFBU and there will be lot of hue and cry among the unions and their supporters.    Whether we will be successful to shake the UFBU or not - only future will tell and will depend on the interest shown by Aam Banker  in this moment to force UFBU to listen to their demands ?   In the process I may have to spend few thousands of rupees from my personal pocket but we are ready to do so for the benefit of the Aam Banker as we do  NOT wish to collect funds from any banker, as respective unions are already collecting crores of rupees and are not answerable to anybody.   Please be ready to counter union leaders who are likely to give this move a political colour /  motive or so.   Tell everybody about the truth that ABS is not collecting any money nor it wishes to join any political party.  Remember my age and health does not permit to do so and I do not want to be a parasite like some of retired leaders heading their unions. 

 

 

   Let God give us strength so that we can continue our efforts to bring TRUTH to the knowledge of each and every banker.  Make this known to as many bankers as possible.  We need your good wishes and not subscription fee.