After FM Meeting, CHV Now Prepares Ground for Call Off 4 day Strike and Even Settle for Lower Wage Hike by Rajesh Goyal
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Immediately after meeting FM and issuing its circular, CHV appears to have launched full scale media blitz to prepare ground for calling of 4 day strike and even settle for lower wage hike.
Give give below some of his quotes which have appeared in LiveMint today. These will give insight to the bankers as to what is happening behind the curtain :-
The news item says :
Bank unions
may call off a planned four-day nationwide strike starting 25 February and
settle for lower wage hikes than earlier demanded, after finance minister Arun
Jaitley asked union leaders to resolve differences with bank managements.
Union leaders will meet representatives of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA),
the apex bankers’ lobby, on Friday for conciliatory talks to resolve the pending
wage issues in the presence of chief labour commissioner P.P. Mitra.
The last round of negotiations between the unions and the IBA, held on 3
February, failed after the IBA offered a 13% hike compared to 12.5% offered
earlier. But this was still much lower than the 19.5% demanded by the unions.
Bank wages are revised every five years. The present round of wage hike is
pending since November 2012.
The finance
minister was aware of the pending wage hike issue, but preferred not to
quantify the percentage increase in wages that
should be agreed upon, according to All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA)
general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam.
“He said your demands are genuine but banks have their own constraints. There
should be a convergence of both demands soon, but in the interim you should keep
the talks on,” said C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of AIBEA.
While
the IBA
started
the
negotiation
process
with a
pay hike
proposal
of 5%,
unions
demanded
25%.
Negotiations
stalled
in 2014
and
employees
stayed
off work
several
times.
In 2010,
the last
time
wages
were
revised,
both
sides
settled
on a
hike of
17.5%.
The last
hike,
however,
included
pension
and
gratuity,
while
this
time the
hike is
being
calculated
only on
the pay
slip
component.
While
the
finance
minister
did not
explicitly
ask
unions
to call
off the
proposed
four-day
strike,
Venkatachalam
interprets
it as a
message
to
unions
to not
resort
to
strikes.
“No
finance
minister
of a
country
will
want
strikes.
We told
the
finance
minister
that we
also
don’t
want
strikes,
but we
want to
resolve
the
issue as
soon as
possible.
We are
aware
about
banks’
problems
and we
are
ready to
amicably
settle
the
issue
with IBA
provided
they
show
some
flexibility,”
Venkatachalam
said.
“For
about 40
minutes,
we
explained
our
issues
to him
and
(the)
finance
minister
gave a
very
patient
hearing
with
positive
observations
on some
of the
issues
raised
by us,”
according
to a
circular
to
members
issued
by AIBEA
and the
All
India
Bank
Officers’
Association,
the two
largest
bank
unions
of the
country.
Source :
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/TQ65IKTyvC1Y2xodeE1fnL/Bank-unions-may-settle-for-lower-wage-hikes-call-off-strike.html.
Further Comments by ABS :
It is already being questioned by only two union leaders met Finance Minister when nine unions of UFBU are negotiating for the 10th BPS. Did these two unions take the mandate of UFBU to meet FM or took their unilateral decision to meeting FM. Where UFBU were informed about the meeting in advance, and if so what was the view of other 7 unions in this matter.
Has Government / IBA has been able to divide UFBU by giving so called "patient hearing by FM" only to two union leaders. We have yet to hear from other UFBU. Their silence is intriguing. Whether they too are part of the bigger gameplan to scuttle the forthcoming 4 day strike. To get the truth, I think bankers have to wait for their view point as any conjuctures at this movement by us will only further divide UFBU, which we are not interested to do.