Thursday, January 28, 2016

Bank Union Demand All Saturdays Off


News In Hindu Business Line says
The need for bank holiday on all Saturdays must be stressed at the next bipartite settlement with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), said the leader of a leading bank union.
Sri Y Sudarshan, president of the All-India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), said that the 10th bipartite settlement helped bank employees get holidays on second and fourth Saturdays of every month. In the next bipartite settlement, if the unions could get all Saturdays to be declared a holiday for banks, it will be a big achievement.


Taking exception to the process of banks calling its officers to work on Sundays and other holidays, he said this matter has been brought to the notice of the IBA but the issue is yet to be resolved. "Even bank officers need time to spend with their families," he added.

Stating that there is pressure on public sector banks to cross-sell other products, he said bank unions have to oppose this. "Our own deposits are being converted into mutual funds and insurance products. This is a major threat to the banking industry," he emphasised.

Speaking on the occasion, Prabhat Patnaik, professor emeritus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that the Green Revolution would not have possible in the country if there was no nationalisation of banks then. There was increase in credit to agriculture sector following nationalisation of banks, he said. Opposing any move to privatise public sector banks, Patnaik said it will an irony if that is done.




29 JAN, 2016
Bank Pensioner: Minister of State For Finance advises MOF and IBA to call tripatite meeting on retirees issues


 Mr.Jayant Sinha Minister Of State fo
r Finance advised IBA and Finance Ministry to call for immediate tripartite meeting of IBA, UFBU and Retired Bank Employees Organisations.

Meeting with Minister of State For Finance



On 19 01 2016. a delegation of Forum of Retired Bank Employees (FORBE) led by veteran trade union leader submitted a memorandum   to the hon’ble minister on behalf of Forum, wherein, some of the major issues relating to retired employees of public sector banks which require the intervention of Finance Ministry, Banking Division were detailed. The meeting was attended by the members of the delegation, Mr. Mohan V Tankasale, Chief Executive Officer of IBA and some of the officials of finance ministry.

The memorandum submitted to the Honourable minister contained the details of the following areas:

01. 100% DA Neutralization of those retired prior to   01.11.2002.
02. Updation of Family Pension.
03. Revision in Ex-Gratia to those who retired before
01.01.1986.
04. One more option of pension to those who had resigned

from service and to CRS officers
05. Regular revision of basic pension along with wage
revision.
06. Interpretation and implementation of Regulation 56 of

Bank Employees Pension Regulations 1995.
07. Implementation of Regulation 26 of Bank Employees

Pension Regulation 1995.
08. Incorrect fitment of pay after promotion resulting in

reduction of pay.
09. Denial of one additional stagnation increment to those

who were in service as on 01.11.2012 and retired before
01.05.2015.
10. Representation of Retirees’ Organizations’ in bi-partite

talks with IBA.
11. Bringing Indian Banks’ Association under Right to

Information Act 2005.
12. Accountability and fixing of responsibility of Indian Banks’

Association as it is a representative of managements of
various banks
13. Anomalies in Medical Insurance scheme by the service

providers by their unilateral action.

Mr. K N L Rao initiated the talks and highlighted several issues affecting the retired bank employees, including 100% neutralization, revision of basic pension, medical insurance and others.

Honourable Minister, Mr.Jayant Sinha gave a patient hearing to the delegation. Later he informed the delegation, the constraints being faced by the public sector banks and also the government to meet the demands of the retired bank employees. He wanted to know the cost outgo from the banks, if all the demands of the Forum are to be met by IBA / Government. The members of the delegation brought to the notice of the minister that all the issues covered in the memorandum does not include cost outgo and that there are several issues which are non monetary in nature. They also informed the minister and other officials that the pension fund in all the public sector banks is quite robust and does not need support from government to meet the expenses towards 100% neutralization and / or revision of family pension.

Other major issue discussed was medical insurance for retired employees formulated by IBA. One of the service providers M/s. United India Insurance company have withdrawn some of the services already agreed upon by them, after getting the premium amount from the retired employees. The glaring example is denial of coverage to domiciliary treatment and non coverage of existing diseases, while the same are covered in the scheme formulated by IBA. This has caused frustration amongst the retired employees who have opted for the insurance scheme.

Another issue was that the Umbrella organisations of retired bank employees have not been invited by IBA while negotiating the wage revision of bank employees. Since the UFBU did not take up the cause of retired employees during the recently concluded wage settlement, gross injustice has been done to various demands of retired employees. Hence, the minister was requested to advise the IBA and others concerned to include the organisations of retired employees for negotiations in future wage settlement.

After listening to the above, finally, the honourable minister advised the CEO of IBA and finance ministry to call for immediate tripartite meeting of IBA, UFBU and Retired Bank Employees Organisations numbering five, to discuss the issues of the memorandum and for redressal of the same.

The delegation thanked the honourable minister for giving his valuable time to the delegation and also for having given a patient hearing.

After the meeting, it was decided to send a letter to IBA formally, about the meeting and also for calling for a meeting of the concerned.

Later, the delegation met Ms.Sumitra Mahajan, Honourable speaker of Lok Sabha The delegation also met Mr. Prakash Javadekar, honourable minister for Environment and Forests at his office on 19 01 2016


Why Bank Officers are in General Frustrated or Why do They work so casually or why bank assets are moving from bad to worse ? Please read the writing of an unknown person submitted on Facebook

What they don’t tell you about officers’ jobs in Public Sector Banks
(Just go through this article written by Unknown to have practical working conditions in PSBs)

There is something inherently wrong with an organization and its HR policies in which the clerks of the organization do not aspire to get promoted and become officers! This singular aspect explains everything that is wrong with the pol
icies of public sector banks in India.

A vast majority of the senior clerks who have put in fifteen or more years of service in the bank routinely opt out of the promotion process. When one scratches the surface, this apparently illogical behavioral pattern is not so devoid of logic. Sample some of these facts

The pay that senior clerks get is quite attractive, for the work that they do. Their take-home pay is actually comparable to what the officers get, may be a few thousands less.

The clerks have regulated working hours. Nobody, not even the chairman, can hold them back more than 30 minutes beyond the fixed office timings without compensating them monetarily for the additional hours put in.

They do no get transferred every 2-3 years, meaning it gives them a better social life and their children, better grades in school.

Clerks or Assistants as they are called, are required to do only well defined jobs, often times they get away saying that they do not know how something is done, if that ‘something’ is not what they do on a daily basis.

All these and a lot of other facts compare very favorably with the rather difficult, joyless and frustrating lives of officers, especially the younger officers.

There was a time, not so long ago, when a bank Probationary Officer’s was amongst the most sought after jobs in the country. It came only second in importance to the coveted career in the Indian Administrative Service/ Indian Foreign Service.

Public sector banks are headed for a double whammy in the months ahead on account of the fact that almost 35% percentage of their old warhorses are superannuating and almost 40% of the new recruits hired to replace them, are not staying beyond an average of two to three years.
What has led to this state of affairs ? Why is the job of a bank PO being given up by most ambitious youngsters within months of the probation period getting over.

1) An officer in a PSB, is not expected to have a balanced life; period.

As per the Officers’ Service Rules, officers are required to be available to the bank 24 hours a day. I reckon at a theoretical level, this is unavoidable, in the sense that an officer should not be doing a parallel business or be engaged in any other activity that is detrimental to the interest of the bank. But in reality, the bank actually expects its officers to be in office for almost all his waking hours. A typical officer is expected to sit late and work on Sundays and holidays. All this without any incentive, like overtime pay for the extra hours put in. A typical officer, therefore reaches office around 9 am and leaves office not sooner than 8 pm. Depending on where he is posted, and if one takes into account commute time, one can imagine, if the officer really has a life outside his workplace.

2) Immense work pressure

A typical branch in a Public Sector Bank is almost certainly understaffed. If an average able bodied person can perform X amount of work comfortably on a given day, every bank employee is made to work at least 1.75X; officers are loaded with anywhere between 2X to 4X. This explains why the officers have no option but to sit late routinely and even sacrifice their Sundays and holidays; to do justice to the huge amount of work thrust on them.
When someone exceptionally organized and efficient, after completing his 4X share, tries to leave at 6.30 pm or so, more work is loaded on to him to ensure that he does not leave before 8pm.

A question routinely asked to officers under probation, who have relatively lesser work-load when he tries to leave office by around 6 pm is why as a bachelor he wants to leave early when he is staying away from parents ?!
What this does is that, very early in one’s career, officers get conditioned to the fact that, a ‘smart officer’ is one who takes the longest to complete the tasks assigned to him and that the one who spends the most hours at work is seen as the most committed and loyal and hence the most suited to be rewarded and promoted.
Efficiency has absolutely no value and meaning in a PSB.

3) High accountability

Understandably, because one is dealing with finances, there is very little margin for error in banking. But then bankers are humans, they work under a lot of pressure and mistakes are inevitable. Any small mistake is severely punished. On the other hand, there is no incentive of any sort for performing well or increasing the business.

 This aspect is even more relevant for those working in the credit department. The only reward, as has been alluded to earlier, for good work is more work.
Inadvertent lapses, can lead to issue of memos, inquiries, personal accountability and even CBI cases, especially in the credit department.
There is not even benefit of an extra rupee for doing well in credit. The unwritten rule is, the less risk taken, the better it is. Make no mistakes of any sort, be conservative, sit late in office, work on Sundays and holidays, do not do any real value addition and one becomes the model employee in the organization. Do less work and take home your fixed pittance of a salary, performance can go take a hike.

4) Poor ( Laughable) compensation

 It is not easy to become a Probationary Officer in State Bank of India. It is an intensely competitive exam and only the really hardworking actually make it.
Objectively speaking, a large no of bright, ambitious and capable youngsters join the banking industry allured by the totally wrong impression or ignorance about the working conditions and the monotony of the job, not to speak of the totally pathetic HR policies.

The salary scales of all the public sector banks in the country are the same and these are the lowest when compared to any of the state government/ central government or government public sector undertakings in the country.
It is not like the banks are not running on losses or making only a nominal profit. An organization like State Bank of India is one of the most profitable ones in the country, that on an average makes a y.o.y profit of 30 %. SBI declared profits of over 11,700 crores in the most recent financial results.

5) Frequent transfers

 Every two or three years, the officer is to uproot and relocate to a new place. This practice, deprives the officer of any semblance of a happy married life, if he or she has a working spouse.

 With the thrust for greater financial inclusion and ever more branches being opened in semi urban and rural areas all over the country, officers are getting posted in ever more remote places.

The biggest problem faced by the public sector banks is the rising resentment and frustration level of their employees. If these organizations do not wake up to this reality, some of them may just cease to exist in the next decade.

By Unknown Person






ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION
Circular Letter No.1/VI/2016
POWER OF THE UNION CONQUER                                             
         IDBI RETAINED AS A PUBLIC SECTOR ENTI
GOVERNMENT RETRACES ITS STEP                                                                                                                                                                                                        January 20, 2016
                
  IDBI, a developmental financial Institution, founded in the year 1964, as an extended arm of RBI in the initial stage and subsequently came under the total control of the Central Government. 

  In the year 2004, IDBI Bank Pvt. Ltd., employed contracted workforce, had a reverse merger with the DFI-IDBI, pushing the DFI to entangle with commercial Banking operations.  During the regime of UPA I, the old generation private sector Bank having its headquarters at Satara, Western Maharastra – United Western Bank was merged with IDBI and substantial compensation was paid to the share holders.  Thanks to the political compulsions of UPA I to avoid the liquidation of UWB in the year 2006. 

  The then Finance Minister of the Country, while folding up the discussions on the floor Parliament in the 2003, categorically informed that the Government holding in IDBI, will not be below 52%.  As on date, IDBI is considered to be a laboratory to carry out the experiment the various options of the Governments of the past as well as the present.  IDBI, is governed under the Company law and not under Nationalisation Act 1969/1980
.
  Last year, the present Finance Minister and also Minister of State for Finance through print as well as electronic media made Government’s intention clear to mobilise the resources by reducing the Government’s stake in IDBI and push IDBI to private hands.  The oft repeated expressions were loud and clear.  Having sensed the dangerous move of the present Government, the United Forum of IDBI officers and employees under the Covenorship of Com.R.S.Athalye, who is also the Joint Secretary of AIBOA and General Secretary of AIIDBIOA, in due consultation with workmen representatives, unleashed a series of programme, including a day’s strike on 27th November 2015 ie; the next day of the commencement of the winter session of Parliament.  Apart from this, the hasty announcement of reform process in 15 sectors including Banking, after the drubbing in the lections, received at the hands of the People of Bihar in November 2015. 

  Hats off to the entire workforce of IDBI, the fine preparation of agitation in various States coupled with determination, made the strike on 27th November 2015, a historic one, led by AIBOA officers.  IDBI working was brought to grinding halt.  The general council meeting of AIIDBIOA was held at New Delhi on 12th December 2015 to review and take forward the further course of programmes. 

  While the second phase of agitational programmes were rolled out, the team of office bearers utilised the time gainfully to meet the Parliamentarians of all the political parties at Delhi.  The team worked round the clock literally the whole week.  Sincere and hard works pays.  Shri Sultan Ahmed, M.P. raised the question in the floor of the Parliament.  A categorical reply from the Government on the equity holding including IDBI speaks for itself. 

  A sincere and serious step taken by AIBOA backed by AIBEA workforce, made the Government to relent from the hasty move or Privatisation of IDBI for the present.  The unsettled issue of ownership of IDBI has been settled.  As on date, the Government stake is 80% from the earlier stake of 76.5%. 

  Red Salutes to IDBI officers and workmen for their steadfast approach in protecting the Public Sector character of the IDBI, in their Nation building exercise.
  Yours comradely,
/S.NAGARAJAN/
GENERAL SECRETARY

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