Officers and employees in Public Sector Banks start observing 48- hours All India Bank Strike

Ludhiana, February 10, 2014: On the call given by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), officers and employees in all the Public Sector Banks on Monday started observing 48- hours All India Bank Strike on February 10 and 11, demanding immediate wage revision and to press upon the government to stop banking reforms.
United Forum of Bank Unions (Unit Ludhiana) held a massive rally infront of Canara Bank, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana on Monday.  Sudesh Kumar, Chairman, Punjab Bank Employees Federation,  Naresh Gaur, Convener, United Forum of Bank Unions, Gulshan Chauhan, Rakesh Khanna, Baljinder Singh, J.P.Kalra (All India Bank Officers’ Confederation), D.C.Landra (NCBE),  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.   
While addressing the bank employees, the leaders of UFBU said that in the last round of discussions held on January 17 this year, the IBA had improved their offer from 5% to 9.5% on the pays lip component with an assurance to improve further.  It was also agreed by IBA to hold the next round of discussions on 27th instant to carry forward the discussions.  In view of this, it was decided by UFBU to defer the agitation programmes including two day’s strike on January 20-21 this year. In his background, UFBU held the discussions with IBA on January 27 this year.   During the course of the discussions, it was urged upon the IBA to improve their offer so that by further negotiations, the issue can be settled at the earliest.  IBA insisted that their demands like introduction of cost to company method, Fixed Pay-cum-Variable Pay based on performance, switching over to mediclaim insurance scheme and  restricting the negotiations to officers in scales I to III should also be considered by the Unions before any settlement could be finalised.  Responding to our demand, IBA came forward with a meager increase of 0.5 % in their offer from 9.5 % to 10 % on the cost of Payslip components. A conciliation meeting held on February 6 this year. In this meeting too, despite our best efforts to persuade IBA to improve their offer and to carry forward the negotiations, IBA remained adamant.  In view of this rigid  approach and 10% increase offered by IBA not acceptable to UFBU,  the discussions were inconclusive.  Looking to their rigidity, UFBU decided to revive the agitation and called for 48 hours strike on February 10 and 11 to press our demand for early wage revision.  
Speakers also said banks across the country today have nearly Rs.75 lakhs crores as Deposits representing the hard-earned savings of the people of the country. Hence banking institutions have to be properly regulated. It is because of these defined regulations and predominantly being under public sector, that our Banking system was saved from the global crisis. Because of de-regulation and liberal banking policies, many Banks in many countries including in USA and Europe have collapsed. Indian banks were saved because of our strong regulations and being in public sector. But in the name of Banking Sector Reforms, the Government is taking various steps and measures to liberalise and de-regulate the banking sector. Recently, the RBI has announced in its discussion paper that the Government’s Equity capital in the Banks can be reduced to less than 51% which means nothing but privatisation of our public sector banks. The Discussion Paper also proposes that the Banks may resort to merger of Banks to become international Banks. Our Banks are meant for our own economic development and hence this is clearly unwarranted. Further merger has its own adverse implications to the detriment of the employees and officers working in the Banks. RBI has also issued recent guidelines by which it is proposed to give the Foreign Banks, near national status and even a scope to take over our domestic Banks. Already, the foreign capital and investments in our Banks have been increasing and now the move is to allow the foreign banks to take over our Banks. In the name of Reforms, the Banks are also outsourcing the regular jobs in the Banks on contract basis thus increasing the risks involved. The problems faced in the ATMs on account of outsourcing are there for everyone to see.//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,

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