Wednesday, October 3, 2012

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 10th 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 8th 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 8th 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 9th 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.


47 comments:

Anonymous said...

transortation / conveyance allowance upto Rs 800 p.m is tax free as per I Tax rules. Why bank-employees do not make demand for increase in such tax free head ?.Hope leaders will give proper attention to this tax free head of Income Tax Act.

Anonymous said...

In today's materialistic world when every thing is saleable, then why expect that our Union Leaders are exception and shall bargain for masses

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

i hve a questin
I ve been oficiating head cashier's 'e' seat, myself being 'swo'.
I m nt getin any oficiatin alwnce. R the alwnce of swo nd head cashier's same?

Indian Bank Kumar said...

IF THE PERMANENT HEAD CASHIER IS DRAWING Rs.780 YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR OFFICIATING ALLOWANCE FOR THE DIFFERENCE.

Anonymous said...

Can Unions demand dignity for officers

Pankaj said...

Probationary Officer in Bank is getting initial basic of Rs 14500. Management Trainee Officer in other PSU is getting initial Basic pay of Rs 24900 which is (24900-14500)*100/14500= 71 % more than PO in banks. Class One Officer in Central Govt is getting Basic Pay of Rs 21000 (15600+ 5400 Grade Pay) which is (21000-14500)*100/14500= 49% more than PO in banks. Therefore minimum 49% rise in salary is necessary in 10th bipartite settlement. Anything less is not justified.

Anonymous said...

can you justify the removal of comments by me

Indian Bank Kumar said...

Comments are expected to be relevent to the subject of this post.That is all.Not for any other reason.

chandan said...

Nothing will be possible. The hike will be around 15% maximum. Friends, don't be in a virtual world and gradually loose communication with reality. I am a bank employee in a nationalised bank recruited in 1992.

Anonymous said...

really its uneasy to work in psb when compared with counterparts we are very low paid .definitely the talents will leave from banks.a long working hrs upto 9pm with heavy risk always mounting on

Anonymous said...

Before 10th BP starts, IBA should make following corrections in 9th BP at his own. There should be Grade Pay to all Bank Employees like govt employees. Substaff - Rs 625.00; Clerks - Rs 1250.00; Scale-I - Rs 2500.00; Scale-II - Rs 5000.00; Scale-III - Rs 7500.00; Scale-IV - Rs 10000.00; Scale-V - Rs 13000.00; Scale-VI - Rs 16000.00; Scale-VII - Rs 20000.00. This will be part of basic for all purposes. Secondly, 10% of basic should be paid to all employees who head on permanent basis Branch / Dept. / Office and required to take decisions of Credit / Investment. This should be implemented from 01.04.2012.

Anonymous said...

In all the past settlements a percentage of total load (increase) was kept aside for pension fund and if same thing happens this time what will be the fate of new employees who are not at all entitled to the pension (old) scheme

Anonymous said...

Unions must take up the matter of five day week outside the bipartite settlement otherwise they will be loosers while bargaining with IBA

Shankar said...

As per Supreme Court order, pension is deferred payment for past service rendered and hence any organization is bound to pay pension even when it is under loss. Mumbai High court has given this judgement in respect of Electricity board pensioners.
In my opinion, best option to newly joined employees is to study the new pension scheme and accept it if it is better than old pension scheme OR to demand for old pension scheme as applicable to already recruited employees before 01/04/2012.

Anonymous said...

grade pay is necessary for banker. we are back bone of economy

Anonymous said...

i am scale 1 officer & i pass the cheques upto 1 cr with other officer's signature he is also scale-1. is it in rule of iba that scale 1 officer have limit of passing cheques please clear me about this and refer me circular or whatever related to this

Sanjay Bhatt said...

I strongly agreed the point "Unions must take up the matter of five day week outside the bipartite settlement otherwise they will be loosers while bargaining with IBA"

But its also true and bad fate of bankers that it will done in 10th BPS and nobody will stop to do this to UFBU. We can vomit our anger here or other blog or place.

Anonymous said...

i have worked in SBI for 3 years....cleared both jaibs n caibs in fstt attempt............but when i compared my salaries with my friends i feel ashamed.......finally i resigned form SBI......JOINED CITI BANK WITH package of 25 lakh...i have no hesitation in admitting the fact that when i compared the work load n talent we hv in SBI IS FAR MORE SUPERIOR THAN ANY PRIVATE BANK........BUT WHAT WE ARE GETTIN???????????...............SHAME ON indian banking unions.......

Anonymous said...

SIXTH PAY COMMISSION ALLOWS 20 YEARS SERVICE FOR FULL PENSION. CAN WE EXPECT THE SAME TO BANKERS TOO.

Anonymous said...

Following are the salient features of pension given to Government employees in India:

Those employees who complete 20 years of service are eligible to the full rate of superannuation pension.
The pension will be equal to 50% of either the pay last drawn or the average of emoluments received during the last 10 months of service, whichever is more beneficial to the employee.
After 80 years the pension increases proportionately with age – the pensioners will get an increase of 20% after 80 years, 30% after 85, 40% after 90, 50 % after 95 and a fabulous 100% increase after attaining 100 years of age!
If an employee dies in harness, family pension will be paid at enhanced rates for a period of 10 years.
Upto a maximum of 40% of the pension can be commutated and drawn as lump sum payment which is exempted from Income Tax.
Even those drawing Family pension are also eligible to the higher pension rates applicable to government pensioners over 80 years.
The amount of pension shall be subject a minimum of Rs. 3500/-

Anonymous said...

I am working in a PSU bank since 2008 as a clerk, cleared both part of CAIIB, but believe me or not my friends who got a central govt job in class-iv six months back, draws a little more than of me.....I can't believe

Empeesing said...

In present scenario staff strength in most of the PSU banks including SBI is equally divided between pre-2008 and post-2008 recruited employees. It is therefore post-2008 employees must be given due representation while formulating/ negotiating list of demands in Xth bipartite settlement as the settlement will affect them more as they have longer duration of service left with them. Unions must go all out with 'Running Pay-Band' demand as most of the present employees are sitting on stagnation and it will benefit all the employees in long run.

Anonymous said...

What is the fate of Nov 1997 demised employee's family pensioner? Pl. inform

Anonymous said...

I HAVE BEEN WORKIG IN LEADING BANK AS CLERK FOR 3 YEARS...I AM ASHAMED TO TELL YOU ALL THAT I AM DRAWING A SALARY OF 17K NOW. WHERE AS MY FRIEND WHO RECENTLY JOINED IN EPF IS DRAWING MORE THAN ME. MY BASIC INCREASED FROM 4800 TO 8400 AFTER 9TH BPT. WHRE AS MY SAL INCREASED BY LESS THAN 1500/-.

Anonymous said...

I AM WORKING IN A PSU BANK.. JUST WANT TO SHARE A FACT OF OUR BANK.NUMBERS OF CLERICAL STAFF DECREASED 10% IN 2010 & 11% IN 2012.... NOT BECAUSE OF RETIREMENT BUT YOUNG BLOOD LEAVING ONLY DUE TO LOW PAY..BRANCHES ARE EXPANDING.BUT STAFF STRENGTH IS REDUCING..WHAT A SHAME

Anonymous said...

good blog, carry on

Unknown said...

i joined bank in oct 2011 i preferred bank job than govt job knowingly, salary is less in banks but remember one thing banking is ocean, no limits for growth, learn and move forward dont look at salary, keep on learning, be specialised, get certifications and when you are confident enough get into MNC banks (if you want money), banking is going to reach every nook of the world, every begger will also get a bank account by 2015(financial inclusion)load on banks are going to doubled by 2015 as some body said staff will be reduced by 40% as core banking is being developed, finally what i want to say stick to the banking job and see the miracles by

Anonymous said...

I Do agree banking is a vast industry and there is lot more to learn.
banking is going to reach every corner of the world. but why are we paid less compared to other industries. To make banking industry reach every corner of the world, why is govt. exploiting us...
charges on our services are reducing day by day...can any one explain the reason why Inter Core cash transaction charges made NILL by banks...
Why SBI made minimum balance charges ZERO...
RTGS charges are made NILL...
there is no commission to banks but they want the income...So they are paying us less salaries and showing the remaining amount as profit in balance sheets... yes...this is true...
Banks are now declaring profits at the cost of employees benefit. They want us to earn commission income by mobilizing insurance products...
They want us to beg customers and get the insurance policies.
Ours is a service sector. We should not utter any word on customer even if he is wrong. Even if he scold us also.
We cannot live with the salary of clerk, and we cannot work as an officer in banks.
no other employee in India will lose his personal life as much as a banker do..we are posted every nook and corner of India after every 3 years.
Finally I don’ know whether every beggar will have bank account…but if this continues BANKER S WILL BECOME BEGGERS by requesting customers for deposits and for selling insurance policies.

Anonymous said...

I think every leader from branch secretary to higher lever dont work ,they expect that their work should be done by others ,theyr meant for enjoying maltreating others and also they themselves go alongwith management so that they can make merry. Not more than 5% Leaders who work at the branch level ,95 % exploit others for their benefit

Diptendu chanda said...

The current situation is that the public sector identity of our banks are at stake. Govt is trying to privatise our banks by selling off their shares to the open market to raise funds for their corrupt intentions. Moreover the basel III norms suggests that the banks should issue more shares to raise capital by 2015 or 2018 to mantain capital adequacy and to prevent the banks from various risks, but we should not have an idea that these shares will be puchased by the govt as these will be purchsed by public which will put adverse affects on the public sector identity of our banks. There is nothing to say about salary and perks of bank employees as it is very shameful.i pray to god none of my freinds read this blog because they think i am very happy with my job but i am not.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with the comment BANKER WILL BECOME BEGGAR! The banks showing profit are symbol of employees' financial, mental, social n mental exploitation.

RAMAKANT said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Indian Bank Kumar said...

Generelised abuse is not appreciated

Kumar Anil said...

i am swo 'a' in obc bank,what will be the special pay for me and on transfer how to take leave for 6 days and also the t.a bill, i think there is limit in k.g's for clerks

Anonymous said...

after 10 th biprate whats sallry of a clerk

Indian Bank Kumar said...

We can't predict now.

Anonymous said...

Is there anything for exservicemen who realy suffers by posting policy and the number of service that they are available with them for bank...

Anurag Yadav said...

Previously i was working with PNB as a scale I Officer..Then i got selected in scale II in the same bank and also.i got selected in SEBI..i was never in mood of leavind bank job..but long working hours and high risk with low salary and facilities forced me to leave bnk job...
I request IBA to look from the employee view...
Bank employee are the least paid in country incomparision to others who have same qualification but very less risk..
What more to say....A primary school teacher is drawing more salary than scale I officer of bank....
Wake up IBA before its too late......

Anonymous said...

i m 28 years old and working in a bank ..... due to bad time table in this age a am a diabetic.... so who is responsible me or my bank... so there should be a strict rule regarding time table..... hum kishi organisation se jeene ke lea judte hain marne ke lea nahi.... aur haan parivar ke saath jeena jindagi hai... gadha ke jaisha khatna jindagi nahi hai....

Anonymous said...

We want 5 day week and there should be no compromise on this demand.

Anonymous said...

Bankers always have a bad luck. They work for long hours, they work under stress, get lower salaries, get charge sheets, they have remarks items, they end up with a large number of diseases. There are people who sell their interests. I feel pessimistic, as I know there are people who will sell our interests and end up with a really bad bargain at the time of settlement.

Play Angry-Bird Game said...

thanks for info
nice blog

Anonymous said...

No one can ask a Prime Minister, What you did in 5 years? There is no accountability for even a Prime Minister (the most powerful job in country). But, a bank clerk can be held accountable for anything and can be asked n No. of times What the Hell you did today? Any customer can come and abuse him but he has to keep quite. If he will work more then no overtime allowance will be given because the way to get even a single penny goes through Bank Manager and generally Managers don't consider Clerks as human being.
This is India where everything becomes political in nature with passage of time and so as our Bank Unions. Today Unions are not Unions at all. I remember there was two days continuous holiday and RBI issued guidelines to all the banks to open all the branches for full day on Saturday and then nobody opposed and also nobody got overtime. My bank has issued circulars many a times to the branches to remain open on Sundays and also on holidays and not a single person from unions acted against it and as usual nobody got overtime and also no extra leave.
My good advice to you is just one- today banks are using you because you are on the weaker side, so make yourself so strong that some day you would be able to leave and get some God job. One last thing, Banking doesn't feel like doing a job, it's more like slavery.

Anonymous said...

‘Musings of life’ cannot conceal the feeling of amazement at the loyalty shown by bank employees to these union leaders, who just ‘stabbed’ the employees on their back. They should keep it in their minds that, these demands constitute wishlists of lakhs of bank employees of this country and their successful incorporation and materialization will be the litmus test for success of Xth Bi partite settlements.

Unknown said...

When we joined as Bank PO,s all union we behind us to join their respective organisation. I think they have nothing to do with IBA talks they are merry with themselves as some % of money is begin deducted from salary. Thy just enjoy in the name of employees. I think a satyagrah like moment is needed in banking industry. We make necessary services to our customers but Gov. knows only to waste lot of money in corruptions lots of ghotalas but no increment in salary. Even lots of money is wasted in Yatras which are taken by congress and BJP. Whats the use. Banking industry should be united and go for indefinite strike during elections.

GUARAV said...

Stories of all bank employees are same whether public or private banks.
Low salaries,very high risks, tonns of work,no recognition, respectless profiles,high tensions,zero social and family life,working on holidays,always begging,fear of transfers,fear of bad customer,frauds by third parties,etc etc.
Thanks Mr.Kumar for such a useful blog.
:-)