Bank employee association defers Dec strike post talks

All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) today said it has deferred the proposed nationwide bank strike on December 1-2.
Bank employees under the banner of State Sector Bank Employees Association (SSBEA) have been opposing imposition of career progression scheme of State Bank of India (SBI) on associate banks.
SSBEA comprises unions in SBI's associate banks - State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Patiala.
The strike was deferred after intervention of Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner M K Choudhary, who had called for a conciliation meeting on November 23 in Delhi.

Office bearers of AIBEA, officials from SBI and associate banks and Indian Banks Association (IBA) officials were present at the meeting.
"The scheme includes additional duties and powers, increased working hours, enlarged mobility, abolition of entire posts of permanent sweepers and outsourcing them, among others, which we are opposing," AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam told PTI.

He said SBI management is denying associate banks employees' demands like enhancement in staff house-building loan, implementation of compassionate appointment scheme as per IBA/government guidelines, unless they accept the career progression scheme.
SBI management members who were present in the meeting justified their actions and maintained that the bank has every right to give any direction to associate banks in view of Section 24 of the Subsidiaries Bank Act.

"Issues like duties and powers of staff, allowances, working hours and mobility were discussed in the recent industry-level bipartite settlement and resolved mutually, and associate banks, being a party to it by giving authorisation and mandate to IBA, cannot violate the same," Venkatachalam added.
The next conciliation meeting would be held on December 3, he said.