Ludhiana News/Bank employees observe strike demanding wage revision and to stop banking reforms

Ludhiana, December 18, 2013: On the call given by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), officers and employees in all the Public Sector Banks observed All India Bank Strike on Wednesday, demanding immediate wage revision and to stop banking reforms.
United Forum of Bank Unions hold a massive rally in front of Canara Bank, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana.  Sudesh Kumar, Chairman, Punjab Bank Employees Federation,  Naresh Gaur, Convener, United Forum of Bank Unions, Gulshan Chauhan, Com. Rakesh Khanna, Baljinder Singh, J.P.Kalra (All India Bank Officers’ Confederation), D.C.Landra (NCBE),   K.S.Sandhu, Gurbachan Singh (AIBOA), D.P.Maur General Secretary, Joint Council of Trade Unions and  Dr. Rajinder Pal Aulakh, President, Agriculture Technocrats addressed the bank employees.                                    
Addressing the bank employees, leaders of the Forum said that Wages and service conditions in the banking sector are governed by the industry level bipartite settlements signed between the Indian Banks Association and the trade unions of bank employees and officers. Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks and Foreign Banks who give their mandate to the Indian Banks Association are party to the Settlements and hence are covered by the same. The 9th Bipartite Settlement came to an end on 31-10-2012. Consequently, revision of wages and other service conditions have become due as from 1-11-2012. In view of this, as per the decision of the United Forum of Banks Unions, common set of demands for the employees and officers was submitted to the Indian Banks Association on 30-10-2012. UFBU has been requested the IBA to adopt a time-bound programme to hold the negotiations on the demands and to expedite the Settlement as early as possible. Even though the formal negotiations started in February 2013, only 5 rounds of discussions have taken so far i.e. one round of discussion once in two months. It will be appreciated that the alarming and unabated price rise have seriously eroded the income of the employees and hence the wage revision has become all the more important. The Consumer Price Index has gone up by almost 2400 points under (1960=100) Index series since November, 2007. Hence wage revision to catch up with the high inflation and price rise has become an urgent necessity. Similarly, the workload in the bank branches has gone up substantially due to increase in total volume of business and also due to non-provision of adequate staff and officers in the branches. Employees and officers are working under a lot of stress and strain. The job profile of the staff has also undergone a change and all these require to be properly remunerated with adequate increase in wages. For this reason also the wage increase has become important. But unfortunately, the IBA is delaying the Settlement and during the last one year, not even their minimum offer has been indicated to the Unions. // ludhiana news online, ludhiana news in English, ludhiana news, ludhiana current news, ludhiana news live, Ludhiana breaking news, Ludhiana headlines, Ludhiana latest news, punjab news, india news, punjab news live, punjab news online, punjab news, punjab news headlines, punjab breaking news, india news, punjab news,