No democracy in UFBU

 Indian National Bank Employees’ Federation (A Banking Wing of INTUC)

  INBEF/GS/SSS/2020/ 40          23rd July 2020 

To, 

Mr. Sanjeev Bandlish Convenor-UFBU. 

Reg: Proceedings and Developments in the Bipartite Talks held on 22nd  July 2020. 

With reference to above we would like to draw your attention to two of our letters dtd. 03.06.2020 and 18.07.2020 wherein we have been constantly demanding that before having talks with IBA’s negotiating committee there should be a full fledged discussion amongst the constituents of UFBU to work out the strategies to arrive at respectable wage settlement.

 Earlier there was a practice that when any constituent of UFBU writes a letter to the convenor, the same was being forwarded to all other constituents for inviting comments and thereafter the matter was being taken up for discussion in UFBU forthcoming meeting and if any urgent matter or issue was there, then the convenor used to call urgent meeting of UFBU.

 However, this practice has not been followed in the context of both of our letters.  Since IBA called virtual meeting on 22nd July 2020, you arranged a virtual meeting amongst UFBU constituents on 21st July 2020 and the said meeting began at 10.00 P M. As the audio was very poor, no fruitful discussion could take place.  Mr.Nagarajan, GS AIBOA left the meeting halfway. 

In the said meeting undersigned had particularly asked how much loading percentage over and above 2% of IBA’s offer would be acceptable to UFBU, but unfortunately nothing was clarified and it was just told that we would be demanding for above 2% loading.  Due to the poor connectivity and unclear audio meeting was winded up at 12.45 AM without any conclusion.   

Next day Mr.Venkatachalam AIBEA, Mr.Sanjeev Bandlish, Convenor, and undersigned GS INBEF were present physically at the meeting venue and Mr.Premkumar Makkar GS INBOC from SBI Delhi LHO, Mr.Nagar President AIBEA, Mr.Soumya Dutta GS AIBOC, Mr.Basu GS BEFI from Kolkata LHO, Mr.Upendrakumar GS, NOBW, Mr.Sunilkumar President AIBOC from Patna LHO, AIBOC, Mr.Nagarajan GS AIBOA, Mr.Bala President NCBE from Chennai LHO and Mr.Tikekar GS NOBO from Pune LHO were present virtually in the meeting with IBA which began from 11.30 A M onwards. 

Mr.Rajkiran Rai, Chairman Negotiation Committee IBA confirmed that 15% of wage bill as on 31.03.2017 is agreeable.  As regards loading factor, IBA began with 2% offer. On pension up-dation IBA said it is open to discuss the same on
Adhoc  basis.  On  Family  Pension  revision  IBA  said  it  would  recommend  the same  to  Government  and  would  try  to  resolve  the  same.   
*On  five  days  week, IBA  stated  that  Government  has  already  rejected  the  same.*

   After  threadbare discussions  for  more  than  2  hours,  IBA  increased  their  initial  offer  from  2%  to 2.25%  and  around  3.00  P  M  meeting  was  adjourned  and  agreed  to  assemble again  at  3.45  P  M.     Thereafter  Mr.Venkatachalam  AIBEA,  Mr.Sanjeev  Bandlish,  Convenor,  and  the undersigned  GS  INBEF  went  to  SBI  Employees  federation  office  to  discuss  the issues,  but  you  both  did  not  raise  the  topic  and  after  some  time  you  both informed  me  that  you  will  be  meeting  Chairman  Negotiation  Committee Mr.Rajkiran  Rai.

   Meeting  resumed  at  around  5.30  P  M  and  IBA  offered  2.40% of  loading  and  you  both  offered  2.70%  which  IBA  denied,  again  you  came  down to  2.60%  but  finally  IBA  offered  2.50%  loading  which  you  both  agreed.   

Before agreeing  to  the  IBA’s  offer  of  2.5%  as  per  procedure  you  should  have  adjourned the  meeting  with  a  reason  to  discuss  the  matter  within  the  constituents  of UFBU.    But  it  was  not  done  so  and  entire  process  was  carried  on  in  an undemocratic  manner  without  taking  views  of  the  constituents  on  the increased  offer.   
Thereafter,  you  both  started  signing  the  memorandum  in presence  of  Mr.Rajneesh  Kumar  Chairman  IBA.   
The  memorandum  was  then placed  before  me  to  sign  and  I  signed  unwillingly  because  if  I  would  have  not done  so,  then  a  scene  would  have  been  created  before  the  IBA  Chairman.   

The then  Convenor  of  UFBU  Mr.M  V  Murli  and  Mr.Venkatachalam  were  aware  that during  the 10th Bi-partite  settlement  eleventh  hour  changes  were  made  as  regards to  loading  and  Special  Pay  was  introduced  which  was  protested  by  INBEF  and accordingly  letter  was  given  to  IBA. 
We  have  seen  this  in  the  matter  of  introducing  7.75%  of  Special  Allowance which  is  not  being  considered  for  calculation  of  terminal  benefits.     

(in 9th BPS) Disparity  in providing  One  more  Pension  option  to  PF  optees,  both  existing  as  well  as retired  one  were  compelled  to  contribute  more  to  avail  the  pension  option. 
Retirees  were  forced  to  bear  156%  of  their  PF  Balance  received  at  the  time  of retirement  but  they  were  given  pension  from  a  future  date  i.e.  27.11.2009 irrespective  of  the  date  of  their  retirement.
 It  also  created  a  distortion  in  as much  as  that  an  employee  retired  on  30.11.2007  had  contributed  2.8  times  of the  revised  pay  as  on  01.11.2007  but  the  employee  retired  on  31.10.2007  was forced  to  refund  1.56  times  of  his  PF  accumulation.   

This  overnight  decision was  a  U  turn  because  of  AIBOA’s  punitive  stand  while  signing  the  Joint  Note dated  27.04.2010  which  was  and  is  against  the  PF  Optees’  and  a  wrong message  was  sent  amongst  the  bank  employees  and  officers.

This  is  not  the  first  time  that  such  type  of  eleventh-hour  changes  is  made  in the  wage  settlement  drafts. 
Shifting  of  base  Index  from  1616  to  1684  while deciding  the  wages  which  was  also  challenged  judicially.   
All  the  earlier  three settlements  were  challenged. 

Thus,  introducing  last  minute  changes  without taking  constituents  into  confidence  and  not  discussing  with  them  shows  the attitude  of  thrusting  upon  the  decisions  on  minority  organisations  and dragging  them  is  totally  undemocratic  approach  being  followed  by  majority organisations. 

In  fact,  under  the  prevailing  scenario  of  Pandemic  there  was  a  public  sympathy wave  for  bank  employees  who  have  rendered  relentless  banking  services  and kept  the  wheels  of  the  basic  banking  needs  of  common  man  moving,  but unfortunately,  we  failed  to  capitalise  the  Public  Sympathy  in  achieving  better settlement.   
This  was  the  right  time  we  should  have  shown  our  unity  and  put pressure  to  bag  maximum  of  our  demands  including  better  loading  factor,  5 days  week,  up-dation  of  pension,  revision  of  family  pension  (which  is  not included  in  MOU  but  verbally  informed  by  IBA  Chairman  that  it  is  agreed  in principle  to  improve  family  pension  to  uniform  30%  for  all  and  without  any ceiling).

All  these  events  of  22nd  July  2020  and  circumstances  points  out  clearly  that being  in  UFBU,  the  voices  of  all  constituents  are  not  heard  and  not  given  due recognition.   
There  is  lack  of  transparency  within  UFBU  functioning.    Majority organisations  try  to  enforce  the  pressure  on  minority  organisations  to  compel and  concur  with  their  stand.   
Earlier  when  UFBU  was  not  there  at  least  the minority  organisations  had  freedom  to  put  forth  their  views  straight  before  IBA separately  and  the  same  were  even  being  discussed  before  arriving  at consensus.   

The  present  style  of  functioning  of  UFBU  is  forcing  us  to  place  our displeasure  on  record.  Before  it  is  too  late  UFBU  should  review  its  style  and functioning  so  that  unitedly  we  can  bag  our  justifiable  demands  for  the  benefits of bank  employees  and  officers.

 With  regards,

Subhash  S  Sawant
General Secretary-INBEF

Cc  to  :  General  Secretaries. 1)  All India  Bank  Employees’  Association  (  AIBEA).
2)  National Confederation  of Bank  Employees  (NCBE).
3)  Bank  Employees'  Federation  of India  (BEFI).
4)  Indian  National Bank  Employees'  Federation  (INBEF).
5)  National Organization  of Bank  Workers  (NOBW).
6)  All India  Bank  Officers'  Confederation  (AIBOC).
7)  All India  Bank  Officers’  Association  (AIBOA).
8)  Indian  National Bank  Officers'  Congress  (INBOC).
9)  National Organization  of Bank  Officers  (NOBO).