Date  : 14/09/2011

To

Mr G D Nadaf

All India Bank Officer's Confederation

State Bank Buildings, St. Marks Road              Regd AD

Bangalore - 560 001.

 Dear Sir,

  Sub : Arbitrary Interpretation made by Indian Banks Association in respect of Joint note dated 27/04/2010 to deny one more        option to officers who retired under statutory VRS framed  under Regulation No. 19 of Bank officers service Regulations 1979/1980.

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 1.  After a prolonged and joint struggle by Trade Unions for about 15 years and because of decisions of several High courts and Supreme court in favour of Bank employees, the IBA/Central Govt. reluctantly agreed to extend one more option to VRS retirees who were in the service as on 29/09/1995 but did not opt for pension scheme then. 

 II.  The decision however, was not without any stings.  One of the disadvantages of the decision is that the date of eligibility for commencement of pension is arbitrarily fixed as 27/11/2010.Second disadvantage is the retirees are punished with a fine of 56% of the Provident fund balance.  Both the decisions are in fact not correct as a matter of equity.  This is because the status of all retirees should have been restored to their status as on 29/091995 as the strike clause for all practical purposes was removed abinitio.  Hence remaining conditions which were not applicable as on 29/09/1995 to the offices in general to opt for option, should be equally applicable to all retirees who wanted to opt for second option now.

 III.  The perverse interpretation, of Joint note dated 27/04/2010 communicated by IBA to its member banks for mal-implementation that the entire group of retirees under  statutory VRS framed under BOSR 1979/80 is not covered by Joint note was never dreamt either by Central Govt. Trade Unions and banks themselves. It is true that the specific mention of VRS 2001 was made in the joint note but it is made for the purpose of ensuring clarity.

 IV.  You have in your letter No. 1452/281/11 dated 25/07/2011 addressed to Indian Banks Association rightly given an ultimatum to initiate legal petition if the IBA fails to take steps by 10/08/2011 for rendering justice to the group of VRS retirees which is the only group of retirees who are not getting pension. To save its face, at best IBA should have convened a meeting of all the signatories to the joint note and taken a collective decision.

 V.  It apppears that as usual IBA which has scant respect to Trade Union leaders let alone officers/Executives/CEOs of Banks has not even acknowleded any of your letters.  Now it is time for AIBOC, AIBOA, NOBO & INBOC either jointly or severally exibit their strength and credibility by taking legal action against IBA/Central/Banks for having failed to honour the covenants of Joint note detailed below.

 (i) to convene a meeting of all the signatories to the Joint note dated 27/04/2010 in terms of its clause No. 14 to resolve the diapute.

 (ii)  to advise banks to initiate the process of consultation with RBI and prior sanction of Central Govt, notify the amendments and then only commence disbursement of pension.

VI.  I request you to initiate the above step, as 5% of the VRS retirees have already died during the period from 27/04/2010 to 14/09/2011.  I hope that you have the ability and capacity to do so before it is too late.

 Thanking you,

 Yours faithfully,

 (A. Premananda Pai)

'ANJANA' Ist Cross, 5th Main Road

V P Nagar, Udupi -576 102. (Karnataka).