Bank union to begin strike from Jan 31

SHILLONG: The United Forum of Bank Union (UFBU), the apex co-ordination body of 9 trade unions of bank employees and officers, has decided to go ahead with the two-day strike on January 31 and February 1.
The union has given the call for agitational programmes including strikes on January 31 and February 1, (2 days), March 11, 12 and 13 (3 days) and indefinite strike from April 1, 2020.
They maintained that Wage Revision Settlement for bank employees and officers due from November, 2017, and the unwarranted delay by Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), prompted the union to go on strike.
The union has demanded Wage Revision Settlement at 20 per cent hike on pay slip components with adequate loading thereof, 5 days of banking, merger of special allowance with basic pay, scrapping of New Pension Scheme (NPS), updating of pension, improvement in family pension, allocation to staff welfare fund based on operating profits, exemption from Income Tax on retiral benefits without ceiling, uniform definition of business hours, lunch hour, etc., in branches, introduction of defined working hours for officers as well as ‘equal wage for equal work’ for contract employees/business correspondents.
Criticising the IBA, the union said that the association did not make any offer on wage increase until May, 2018, when their ‘very meagre’ 2 per cent increase was offered. After a series of discussions in the last 30 months, the IBA has improved their offer to a hike of 12.25 per cent, while even in the last settlement the government cleared a hike of 15 per cent.
During the recent period, the prices have gone up steeply and the workload on the banking workforce has also gone up. Hence, bank staff expect a fair and reasonable hike in wages in the current settlement. Hence there is huge disappointment and resentment about the present offer of IBA and their rigid approach.