With the ninth bipartite wage settlement of bank employees ending inconclusively and the Union finance minister not giving any concrete assurance on revision of salaries, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of nine bank unions in India, has decided to meet in Chennai on March 5 to decide its future course of action.
"UFBU has decided to meet in Chennai on March 5 to decide on their future course of action. In that meeting, we will take a call on whether the bank employees across the country would go for a strike to press for their demands," said G D Nadaf, general secretary, All India State Bank Officers' Federation (AISBOF).
He was speaking at the annual general body meeting of the Orissa circle of the State Bank of India (SBI) Officers' Association.
UFBU had approached the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 27 after the ninth bipartite wage settlement of bank employees ended inconclusively on February 22.
While the finance minister said that the code of conduct of the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in the country would not be a deterrent in announcing the salary revision for bank officers, he did not give any concrete assurance on the issue, said Nadaf.
The ninth bipartite wage settlement of bank employees across the country ended inconclusively in Mumbai after the UFBU spurned the offer made by the Indian Bank Association (IBA). IBA had offered only 13 per cent hike in salaries as against 30 per cent demanded by UFBU.
Besides revision in wages, the bank employees have demanded introduction of the pension scheme for the employees and re-introduction of compensatory appointment in the banking sector.
Speaking on the occasion, G Muthuswamy, general secretary, SBI Officers Association (Bangalore circle), said, "The officers of SBI work under intense pressure and there is no manpower planning by the bank management. The management should lay emphasis on proper manpower planning for optimum utilisation of its human resources."
A K Motayad, secretary, Orissa Unit of All India Bank Officers' Confederation said, "Apart from salary revision, we should also demand better service conditions so that we live a life of dignity and are able to spend quality time with our families. We want a respectable pay revision with regulated working hours and other non-financial benefits."
