After the last round of discussions held on October 12, 2018, there was another round of Bipartite Talks between IBA and UFBU on November 30, 2018 in Mumbai. IBA team was led by Rajkiran Rai G, (MD and CEO of Union Bank of India), also chairman of the Negotiating Committee of IBA.

UFBU was represented by leaders of all the nine constituent unions, including C H Venkatachalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employees Association, the largest bank union and leaders of AIBOC, NCBE, BEFI, AIBOA, INBEF, INBOC, NOBW and NOBO took part in the discussions.

Picking up the thread from the discussions of the last round of discussions wherein UFBU had urged upon the IBA to improve their offer of six percent hike in the cost of payslip components, IBA revised their offer and increased their offer to eight percent instead of six percent offered earlier. Payslip components relates to salary paid in cash like Basic Pay, DA, House Rent Allowance, etc. and does not include cost of PF, Gratuity, Pension, Medical insurance premium paid by the Banks, cost of Leave Travel Concessions, etc.

IBA also reiterated their formula of further wage increase over and above their offer of eight percent based on their proposal of wage hike linked to annual increase in Operating Profit and on Return on Assets of the Banks. While welcoming their improved offer of eight percent, UFBU stated that differential wage increase based profits of each Bank is not acceptable and that the wage revision in the Banks should be uniform as has been hitherto from 1948 when the first National Wage Award was given by Justice Sen. In all the Bipartite Settlements from first BPS in 1966 to 10th BPS in 2015, wages have been uniform in all Banks irrespective of annual profits of Banks.

United Forum also further stated that IBA’s revised offer of eight percent was far below the expectations looking to present cost of living, rate of inflation, erosion in real wage, enormous increase in workload on account of lack of adequate recruitment, etc. Hence UFBU urged upon the IBA to further revise their offer substantially to an acceptable level.

UFBU further stated that wage revision for officers should cover all officers from Scale I upto Scale VII and not from Scale I to III as proposed by IBA. IBA expressed their limitations in this regard as some of the Banks like SBI, PNB, Union Bank, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank have given them mandate only upto Scale III officers. UFBU insisted IBA to find an amicable solution to this important issue.

UFBU has requested the IBA to hold further discussions at the earliest to take the negotiations forward and to conclude the settlement at the earliest. IBA informed that they are also eager to finish the negotiations at the earliest.

Regarding the proposed amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank, the meeting noted that the Government and the concerned Banks were moving ahead with their decision and hence it was decided to give the call for observing All India Strike on December 26, 2018. All nine unions under UFBU will participate in this strike call.

All India Bank Employees Association announced their decision that bank employees under AIBEA would join the National General also Strike on January 8-9, 2018 to oppose the anti-people economic policies and anti-worker labour policies of the Central Government as per the call of National Trade Union Convention. (IPA Service)