It is a rare occasion that a media house has seriously taken the issue of pending 10th BPS in the right prospective.  We give below a link to an article published in the renowned magazine "Governance Now".   I have seen for the first time that an issue of wage revision has been such a prominance in a magazine.   There is a need that we should encourage media houses to highlight the plight of bankers.   I would like to quote some of the paragraphs from the article, but would like our readers to read the full article so that they get a feel of the things that are going on.  They can give their comments liberally on the website of the magazine so that the publishers know about the true feelings of bankers and more media persons are encouraged to take up this issue.   

The article rightly says "The UFBU submitted its charter of demand on October 30, 2012 - a day before a new bipartite settlement due for implementation.  But it was only six months (April 22, 2013) hence that the IBA held first meeting with unions on wage revision".

It also gives insight about the reasons why good people are not joining banks, when it quotes AK Khandelwal report saying “The fresh graduates are reluctant to join a government bank as they failed [sic] to provide concrete career growth path to their employees.”

Towards the end it also quotes “The IBA delays the wage revision because after two years of talks, bank employees almost settle on whatever minimum they get in negotiations. Also, once the pay is increased, the employees get their arrears from the due date without interest. By delaying the wage revision, the banks save money the tune to crores in interest.”

I am surprised to read that Mr Harvinder Singh has said "If nothing comes out in NEXT  FEW  MONTHS , we will decide our concret course of action, including a strike".  I wonder that Mr Singh is still contemplating of concrete course of action, rather than going all out.

The article also quotes Mr R K Dubey, CMD of Canara Bank saying “There is no deadlock. We have forwarded the demands of the unions to the government. The government has to formalize and indicate [its stance].”

The statement of Mr Dubey clearly indicates that IBA has made no sincere efforts to get a mandate from the government as even after 13 months of submission of demands, IBA is still awaiting a nod from the government. 

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PSU bank staff wage a war for wage hike