PSU Banks are pillars of economic development, fostering growth, Though in real danger of Privatisation- AIBOC

 

All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), the body of bank officers in the country, on Tuesday, said state-run lenders are in "real danger of privatisation" despite playing a crucial role in closing the economic divide in society.

On the occasion of the 55th Bank Nationalisation Day in India on Wednesday, the Guwahati-headquartered body said public sector banks (PSBs) have played an important role in promoting financial inclusion and mobilising savings since the nationalisation of the lenders in 1969.

"Public Sector Banks are in real danger of privatisation. It is an ideological conflict that can be overcome by supporting the alternative ideology that prioritises the welfare of a larger human population," AIBOC general secretary Rupam Roy said.

Since their nationalisation, these PSBs have been channeling funds to vital sectors such as agriculture, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), education, and infrastructure among others, he added.

"They have been the pillars of economic development, fostering growth and providing millions of Indians with access to banking services," the statement said.

AIBOC said as income inequality becomes an urgent issue in society, PSBs play a crucial role in closing the economic divide, ensuring banking access to the underserved segments of society to foster a more equitable economic environment.

"As an appropriate measure to scrutinise the commercial activity of PSBs, the government should consider funding the cost of services rendered by PSBs at market value when it asks them to carry out its social agenda," it added.

Roy in the statement said as the largest shareholder in PSBs, the government is the biggest beneficiary of the dividends paid by the state-run banks out of the profit.

"This is in addition to the corporate taxes and other taxes that all corporations, including PSBs, are required to pay. The per employee customers for SBI is 1,900, whereas for HDFC it is 530 and for Axis Bank it is 325," he added.

Therefore, the norms and benchmarks for these India-specific PSBs must be devised specifically and their performance must be compared and contrasted amongst themselves, the AIBOC official said.

Roy further said the employees of the public sector lenders have played a crucial role in upholding national values and serving citizens with the utmost commitment.

"They have endured a variety of economic cycles, exhibited resiliency, and continued to provide vital banking services uninterrupted even during difficult Covid periods and during calamities," he added.

Roy pointed out that despite their diligent efforts, bank employees face numerous difficulties and the inadequacy of recruitment in PSBs has put a tremendous strain on the existing workforce, depriving them of much-needed leisure and work-life balance.

"In addition, it is of significant concern that pensions for retirees, who have devoted their careers to nation-building, have not been revised and increased on a par with government and RBI employees," he added.

The AIBOC urged policymakers, regulators, and other interested parties to recognise the invaluable contributions of the PSBs and their employees.

"Addressing their legitimate demands and ensuring their well-being is essential to preserving the nationalisation ethos and fortifying our financial sector for a prosperous future," it added. 

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Bank officers’ union launches nationwide movement against privatisation

Bank officers’ union on Tuesday launched nationwide movement against proposed privatisation of stat-owned lenders. ‘Bank Bachao Desh Bachao Rally’ was held at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Tuesday attended by officers and other stakeholders from various parts of the country, the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) said in a statement.

Addressing the rally, AIBOC General Secretary Soumya Datta appealed to the government to withdraw the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which has been listed for introduction and passing in the winter session of Parliament.

“In case the government tables and passes the bill paving the way for the privatisation of the public sector banks, the bank officers will unite all the stakeholders of the banking sector and launch a nationwide agitation,” he said, urging the bankers to draw inspiration from the farmers movement.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting Budget 2021-22 earlier this year had announced the privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs) as part of disinvestment drive to garner Rs 1.75 lakh crore. The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, to be introduced during the session is expected to bring down the minimum government holding in the PSBs from 51 per cent to 26 per cent.

In the last concluded session, Parliament passed a bill to allow privatisation of state-run general insurance companies. The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021, removed the requirement of the central government to hold at least 51 per cent of the equity capital in a specified insurer.

The Act, which came into force in 1972, provided for the acquisition and transfer of shares of Indian insurance companies and undertakings of other existing insurers in order to serve better the needs of the economy by securing the development of general insurance business.

Government think-tank NITI Aayog has already suggested two banks and one insurance company to Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment for privatisation. According to sources, Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank are likely candidates for the privatisation.

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Banks unions call for two-day strike against proposed privatisation of PSBs

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, on Tuesday gave a call for a two-day strike from March 15 to protest against the proposed privatisation of two state-owned lenders. In the Union Budget presented last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the privatisation of two Public Sector Banks (PSBs)as part of its disinvestment plan.

The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years. It has been decided to oppose the government’s decision to privatise banks during the meeting of UFBU held on Tuesday, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C H Venkatachalam said.

“The meeting discussed the various announcements made in the budget of the central government regarding reform measures like privatisation of IDBI Bank and two PSBs, setting up of bad bank, disinvestment in LIC, privatisation of one general insurance company, allowing FDI in insurance sector up to 74 per cent, aggressive disinvestment and sale of public sector undertakings, etc,” he said.

The meeting observed that all these measures are retrograde and hence need to be opposed, he added. After deliberations, it was decided to give the call for a two-day — March 15 and March 16 — strike against the government’s moves, AIBOC general secretary Soumya Datta said.

Members of UFBU include All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI).

Others are Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO)

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11th Bipartite Settlement Updates: Joint note of IBA & Officer Association

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Nation-wide strike impacts banking services at PSU banks

Banking operations, including cash withdrawal and cheque clearance, were hit due to two-day nationwide strike by employee unions of public sector banks to press for wage revision.

The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) to press for wage revision pending since November 2017.

However, private sector lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank ran operations as usual.

Branches in several parts of the country remained closed and some of the ATMs also went dry, according to reports coming various parts of the country.

Many banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), had informed customers in advance that operations may be impacted to some extent due to the strike.

The strike coincided with the beginning of the Budget session of Parliament and presentation of Union Budget 2020-21.

The UFBU decided to go on strike after its discussion with Indian Banks Association (IBA) on wage revision failed in the recent round of negotiations held on Thursday.

During discussions, the IBA on Thursday improved their offer to 12.5 per cent, but this was not acceptable, the unions said.

"The bank managements and IBA did not come forward to settle the demands with a reasonable increase in salary looking to inflation and heavy workload on the employees," the UFBU said.

However, the IBA in a statement said despite the revised offer of up to 19 per cent hike, including performance linked incentive, made by it during the meeting on Thursday, the unions decided to go ahead with the all-India bank strike.

Wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017.

In the past wage settlement, which was for the period November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017, employees got a hike of 15 per cent.

The IBA also rejected the unions demand for five-day banking saying, "It is known to all that the economy of the country is going through testing times. Banks being the principal players in economic development, cannot afford to provide lesser number of working days for banking activities."

The banking lobby said the country already has one of the highest numbers of public holidays and adding 26 more holidays would create more problems for the public.

"IBA is claiming five-day banking is not possible due to the tough economic situation in the country. Then how RBI, Department of Financial Services (DFS), NCLT, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and other central and state departments are working for five days in a week? Are these institutions not worried about the economic slowdown?" asked a section of agitating bankers.

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Don't sale third party products in state run banks- AIBOC

Bank officers at state-run banks are facing tremendous work pressure due to staff shortage and sale of third-party products like mutual funds which should be stopped, a senior official of All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOC) said.

Bank managements are turning lenders into supermarkets of all banking services and shifting the focus of bank officers to just third party products, AIBOC Vice-President Deepak Sharma told PTI here.

This tremendous pressure is leading them to depression or suicidal tendencies on account of their unending efforts to make a balance between multiple pressures, job requirements, and appeasement of bosses, he added.

The officers in nationalized banks are under tremendous pressure to meet the targets on those works which are basically not in their basic Job, he claimed.

"There is heavy workload,acute shortage of staff and lot of pressure down the line to sell mutual funds and insurance products to make banks as super markets of all banking services, which has beencreated by the bank managements, misplacingthefocus of bank officerson just third-party products," he said.

Sharma alleged that in the last few years,bank managements are creatinglot of pressure down the line to sell mutual funds and insurance products,as these sales arelinked with higher income in the shape of incentives to seniors, in perks,foreign tours, gala parties in five star hotels in exotic locations, recognition and rewards to best performers, promotions etc.

He said that there is an urgent necessity to stop handling of such non banking activities in banks in the interests of banks, employees and customers, rather bank managements should recruit sufficient staff to implement various govt sponsored schemes.

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Crack within UFBU may affect wage revision talks

A major crack has surfaced between bank officers and workmen unions over the issue of wage settlement, threatening to hamper the 11th bipartite negotiation. 

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) -- the umbrella body of nine trade unions -- which holds wage revision talks on the behalf of their members with the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), is even facing a split if the matter is not resolved fast. The two of the officers organisations abstained from the negotiation table in the last round of talks. 

The fight erupted between UFBU members following an IBA proposal of bank-wise wage settlement for senior officers from scale IV and above. Six banks -- State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India -- have mandated IBA to restrict the wage rise offer to officers up to scale III. These banks proposed to fix compensation for their senior officers independent of the bipartite negotiation, and based on their paying capacity. 

In other words, these banks with better financials than the rest have shown willingness to offer higher remuneration package to their officers -- from chief managers to general managers. 

The 21 public sector banks employ over 10 lakh people. About 3.5 lakh are officers with about 60-65% of them being from these six banks. However, about 90% of the officers in all banks taken together fall in the scale I to scale III category. 

Protesting against the split mandate to IBA, the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) -- the largest officers’ organization -- abstained from the last negotiation talks held on February 2 in Mumbai. At that meeting where two other bank officers unions were present, IBA raised its wage increase proposal to 10% from the previous 8% offer. AIBOC had walked out of the negotiation table on November 30 as well. 

“We want expeditious settlement of wages. We have appealed AIBOC leadership to return to the negotiation table,” AIBEA president Rajen Nagar told ET on Thursday. 

“If AIBOC does not return to the table, then workmen need to take a view of the situation. We cannot wait indefinitely,” Nagar said. 

Earlier, AIBOC criticized AIBEA general secretary CH Venkatachalam for reportedly inciting a split within UFBU. 

“He (Venkatachalam) has stated that the present offer of IBA is more in quantitative terms than the quantum paid in the 10th bipartite settlement. He has also said the officers’ associations are creating impediment to the settlement. We strongly denounce unilateral pronouncement of one constituent of UFBU on the merit of the present offer of IBA which is very likely to jeopardize the ongoing negotiation,” AIBOC general secretary Soumya Datta had said last Saturday. 

"We seek your immediate intervention at this critical juncture so that the edifice of joint movement do not suffer," Datta said in a letter to UFBU. 

National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO) also did not take part at the February 2 meeting while All Indian All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) and Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC) were present. 

“His (Venkatachalam’s) statement has been distorted. He has only narrated the truth at a union meeting in Kanpur,” AIBEA’s Nagar said. “The fact remains that we have rejected IBA’s 10% offer,” he said. 

The 11th bipartite settlement is due from November 1, 2017.  

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Get ready for another bank strike in December

As if the all India bank strike on December 26 is not enough, a bank officers union has separately threatened yet another bank strike on December 21, which would hit banking services severely around the Christmas holidays. 

The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) said the strike call on December 21 against Indian Banks' Associations move to leave officers in scale IV and above out of the bipartite wage settlement ambit. 

December 21 being a Friday, bank services will be severely hit till December 26 -- except for December 24 which is Monday -- as bankers will enjoy weekends holidays as well as Christmas on December 25. Banks will remain closed on December 22 as being the second Saturday. 

"We demand full and complete mandate for officers (Scale I to VII) wage revision in 11th bipartite settlement," AIBOC said in its bank strike notice, a copy of which was marked to the Chief Labour Commissioner in New Delhi. 

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella unit for nine bank associations including AIBOC, have similar demand. UFBU will be going on bank strike on December 26 against issues ranging from wage settlement and bank mergers. 

UFBU rejected Indian Banks' Association's 8% wage hike offer. IBA proposed wage settlement for scale I to scale III bank employees and is in favour of bank wise wage settlement for senior employees of scale 4 and above. 

"Wage revision for all scales of officers from scale I to scale VII has been the practice since 1979. It is unfair that IBA ignored the fact that the majority of the member banks have submitted the unconditional mandate," AIBOC general secretary Soumya Datta said.

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