10th BIPARTITE SETTLEMENT and MY SUGGESTIONS !!

(REVISED 25.06.2012)

Bank employees started talking about 10th  Bipartite Settlement.

Dissatisfaction, anguish, backstabbing, disappointment over IXth Bipartite/Pension settlement   are still remaining fresh in their mind.

Percentage of increase was very low when compared to LIC/GIC and Central/State Govt. employees.

Penalty was imposed on those who opted for Pension, thanks to the black-sheep within UFBU and supported indirectly by Big brothers in UFBU.

Those who are affected are still knocking the doors of various courts.

O.K. will the unions/associations learn lessons from what has happened in the past?

Will they achieve higher percentage this time?

Will they find ways to overcome the worst working condition prevailing now? 

As per settlement charter of demand may be given by UFBU SIX MONTHS BEFORE 01.11.2012. i.e by 01.05.2012

Let us not start the wage discussion with pessimistic note.

Hope all will end well.

Working Employees are welcome to express their expectations on various heads of wage revision. and send your suggestions to my e-mail.

My suggestions for 10^th Bipartite Settlement:

1.      STAGNATION INCREMENT:

     Now Scale of pay for clerk/sub staff has only 20 increments.

     A graduate clerk (age 23) with CAIIB will reach the maximum in 15 years.

    After that he has 23 years of service, whereas only 7 increments are available.

    Therefore I suggest that span of scale of pay should be increased to 25 

    and  thereafter Stagnation increments to be given at the interval of 2 years. 

1A. F.P.P:  D. A. on F.P.P should be defreezed.   ........Continued

2.      SPECIAL ALLOWANCE :

Before 8^th bipartite settlement spl.all. was paid to posts that involves spl.skill and not with high risk.

For example, steno, agri.asst, telephone operator etc.

In 8^th bipartite Computer operator allowance with passing power was introduced.

I.e. a SWO with passing power of Rs.20000 for payment/Rs.25000 for receipt

 draws Rs.1100(new 500) whereas a computer operator without passing power draws Rs.910(new0).

For the risk taken by SWO, he was paid only Rs.190 (new500) as compensation.

Is it correct and justifiable?

Moreover an officer is passing cheques or credit vouchers only after a clerk entered in the computer, i.e. he act as checker only and never acts as a maker-cum-checker.

i.e. he takes 50% risk only.

Whereas a SWO act as a maker –cum checker always and takes 100% risk on his shoulder .

Moreover counting of cash involves the risk of fake note, short ,excess etc.,

Therefore the concept of spl.allow. to be revised /revisited to match the risk involved and not

Merely merging D.A with spl.allow. and thereby increasing by 15% or 20%

(It may come around Rs.985 ONLY at 20% wage increase)

3.       SPECIAL ASSISTANT:

Allowance for Spl. Assistance is meager when compared to his risk and responsibility.

He has to pass cash cheques upto Rs.35000 and transfer vouchers up to Rs. 150000

And take care of his department and follow-up/letter writing etc.,

Whereas an Scale I officer passes up to Rs.50000 and Rs.200000 respectively.

What is the salary/perks of an officer and that of Spl.Asst.

This aspect was not considered for the past 4 or 5 settlements.

To rectify this position,  I suggest that a separate scale of pay may be introduced for Spl.Asst.,

As prevailing in Life Insurance Corporation of India and General Insurance companies for

Special/Senior assistants.

4.        MEDICAL REIMBURSEMENT:

Bank employees are not able to get reimbursement for their medical bills when they admit in a hospital not approved by the bank. Admission in a hospital depends on the situation, individual’s preference, doctors available in a hospital etc.,

Moreover bills are passed for a lesser amount subject to ceilings prescribed for different heads like room rent, operation charges etc.,

In the last settlement increase given for different heads were very low due to load constrains.

To overcome this situation, my suggestion is banks should arrange to take

“GROUP MEDICLAIM”  policy for their employees and premium should be paid by banks.

This is not a new concept , it is available almost all industries including state Govt. employees.

It is shame that bank employees are not covered by mediclaim policy in this modern world.

To start with banks can opt for a policy for Rs.5,00,000/-per employee family.

5.       HALTING ALLOWANCE:

Present Halting Allowance pattern is unrealistic.

For example when a clerk attends training at CHENNAI he is paid Rs.500.

Can anyone find it enough for a lodge room and have break-fast, lunch, dinner and auto charge from room to training center and out of pocket expenses etc., within Rs.500?

It is of no use increasing the allowance by 100 or 150 for another 5 years.

Therefore provision should be made to reimburse lodging bills apart from halting allowance when the task involves night stay.

This provision is available in General Insurance companies right now.

6.       LEAVE FARE CONCESSION:

Banks reimburse only train/bus fare on actual travel on L.F.C.

Really the Lodge rooms expenses ,lunch expenses, out of pocket expenses and entry fees etc.,

Will be a huge amount for the employees , which they have to bear from their pocket.

That is the main reason why most employees avoid actual travel and avail encashment of L.F.C.

Therefore I suggest to introduce reimbursement of out of pocket expenses on actual travel,

And  100% reimbursement of L.F.C on encashment.

7.        PENSION:

(A)   No amount should be set apart from wage load for Pension Fund.

New recruits from 01.04.2010 are not covered by Pension Fund and they are covered by New Pension Scheme only.

If any amount is spared for Pension Fund, New recruit employees may oppose it legally.

Already there are many cases pending for having deducted amount from arrears of 9^th bipartite for opting Pension.

(B)   Pension updation to be done regularly.

It was provided in Pension settlement 1993/1995 that pension will be updated as and when Wage revision took place in banking industry. So far no upadation is done even after 3 bipartite settlements. Different set of bank employees retired on various dates draw pension with different D.A formula. Therfore Pension should be updated immediatley and ensure the same in future also.

8. Encashment  of P.L :

on retirement it should be increased to 300days from 240 days.

9.Ad hoc payment:

Since every settlement takes two to three years to come to a conclusion. For example 9 th bipartite took 30 months. Employees got arrears for 30 months. In this process employees are loosing and Banks are benefited by crore and crore  of rupees.

Hence an ad hoc payment, say 15% towards salary increase may be demanded at the first negotiation itself.

10.Stop outsourcing:

In India lakhs of unemployed youth are available.

Banks can recruit required number of employees and get work done.

Whereas outsourcing agencies give paltry salary to unemployed youth and pocket chunk of money . Thus money does not go to the legitimate employees.

Moreover secrecy of  bank a/c is at stake when temp/agency employees are allowed to access bank files/accounts.

11. 5 day week:

     

This demand is already pending. Unions should deal carefully,

as IBA may use it as a trump card to weaken bargaining power of UFBU.

 

12.  MISCELLANEOUS:

(A)   ATM Operations:  Role of Clerk/risk and responsibility/mode of conveyance/compensation.

(B)   Gold coin : Lifting of gold coin from feeder branch to  individual branches. Procedures /mode of conveyance/Compensation /Oficer or clerk etc.,

(C)   Marketing:  Marketing of products/business>> mode of conveyance/during office hours/after office hours and on holidays/compensation.

(D)   Extension of working hours on special occasion by Bank/RBI/Govt.,/Payment of overtime wages.

Discussion on the above subjects to be carried out and a detailed common procedure/fixing of responsibilities/ compensation  should be arrived .

13.        WHY SUBSTANCIAL INCREASE TO BE ACHIEVED?

 After banking operation brought under CBS risk factor to employees becomes unlimited. In the manual operations wrong crediting/debiting is restricted to branch customer, whereas now it is extended to customers though out the nation.

     If any mistake took place recovering of money becomes difficult.
  RTGS for Rs.100000 was sent as Rs.10000000 as the dot in the keyboard didn't work well.
The clerical employee and officer employee compensated the interest involved up to recovery period and faced the disciplinary action also. 
Hundreds of stories like this  are available in each bank.

 Today’s bank employees work always under pressure .

If I try to narrate elaborately it will go to pages.

I shall explain with a simple axample.

Why a pilot is paid more than a bus driver. Both are handling machines that carry goods and human beings .  What is the difference?

It is qualification ,technical skill, and above all the RISK FACTOR.

Likewise bank employees can’t be just compared with other salary class employees.

Bank employees are not just a data entry operator.

Every entry that he enters, every decision he takes is coupled with high risk.

Hence, this time not less than 30% increase in wages  to be achieved.