Mumbai, Sept 26: With bank management’s unwilling to improve the wage hike offer and other service conditions, Bank unions will go on a strike, according to CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees Association.
The bank-wide wage negotiation meeting between the bank managements and the unions on Friday ended in a stalemate.
Venkatachalam said the date of strike will be decided in consultation with all trade unions in the banking sector.
While the bank managements, under the aegis of the Indian Banks’ Association are for 11 per cent increase in wage bill, unions say this is not enough.
“Besides increase in the cash component of the salary, we also want improvement in pension benefits, enhanced healthcare benefits, and five-day banking, among others,” said Venkatachalam.
My Message to Bank Staff is as follows:
Bank staff are very much annoyed and feel frustrated due to inordinate delay in wage revision and some of them even plan to put hurdles or boycott implementation of PMJDY.They are very much disappointed due to frequent failure in wage talks held between IBA and UFBU. They are unhappy over indifferent attitude of IBA and casual approach of leaders associated with negotiating team of United Front Of Bank Union. But it has to be kept in mind that Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna is a National Programme and any hurdle on its path will annoy common men of the country which is not good and which will tarnish the image of bank staff in the eyes of common men. At all cost , it should be the endeavour of each bank staff to save and safeguard the image of banks they serve.
As a matter of fact, Bank Staff have to teach lessons to EDs and CMDs of Banks who are playing foul game with bank staff in nexus with Union leaders and who have jointly caused much loss to bank and who themselves have become wealthy and who made their kith and kin wealthy. It is they who accumulated bad debts in their banks.
Bank staff have to teach lesson to those politicians and ministers who have used banks for serving their self as well as political interest. It is politicians and top officials who in nexus with corporate houses have caused much loss to banks and now they are putting blame on poor bank staff and denying respectable wage hike to bank staff on the ground of erosion in profits. This is totally injustice and need to be dealt with appropriate course of agitational programme. Rise in bad debts or erosion is profit of banks has been caused by corrupt officials, politicians and defaulting borrowers, not at all by 10 lac bank staff. It is hardly 1 out of 100 bank officers who is corrupt and who is tarnishing the image of banking fraternity. Bank staff working at branches are not solely responsible for rise in bad debts. It is always the top officials and politicians who build pressure for reckless lending in the name of target achievement. If bank staff are given full liberty , they can earn many more times of profit what these bank earn now under leadership of corrupt officials and under guidance of corrupt politicians.
Bank employees have to take oath to expose all EDs and CMDs who have looted bank and caused loss or erosion in profit of the banks . Bank staff will have to teach lesson to top officials who build pressure for late sitting , for sanction to bad borrowers and who favour only flatterers and yesmen employees and who focus on only their own career. These clever officers win the hearts of ministers and RBI officials by achieving target through unfair means and by taking illegal work done by juniors and then stab on the back of staff and deny wage hike when they discuss with UFBU on wage hike. It is top officials who sacrifice the interest of banks in lending and in writing off of bad loans or selling of bad loans to ARC and cause losses to banks . Poor bank staff work day and night just to obey the orders of higher officials.
Real enemy are bank's own top officials who for the sake of work promise everything to bank staff and become hostile when bank staff ask for respectable wage hike. It is these EDs and CMDs who are part of IBA and who talk on behalf of the government. It is top officials who are exploiting banker for years together and who for the sake of illegal money keep leaders of trade unions happy and do all illegal work without any hesitation. They exploit bank staff and are busy in earning through lending. It is not only S K Jain CMD of Syndicate Bank who has been sent to Jail, almost all CMDs are birds of same feather. Cases of malpractices have already surfaced in recent past in many other banks, but RBI and GOI are maintaining silence on this issue and setting up one panel or the other .Until they learn to punish heavily offices who are cheaters, there will be no respect for rules and no fear of action in the minds of officers who cheat banks in someway or the other.
It is the duty of all bank staff to expose all top officials , all ministers and all leaders who have cheated bank and bring all truth of the system before people of India. Pathetic position of bank staff and poor pay structure will further add fuel to fire and sickness of bank will grow more and more.
It is pity that billions and billion of public money is in the hands of dissatisfied and disappointed lot of employees. Financial responsibilities lies in the hands of workers who themselves are financially weak and whose weakness is growing year after year. Employees who deal in money are unhappy with money they get in lieu of hard work they do. Such situation has already landed the banks in problems of huge bad debts and may further aggravate the sickness of the banks . Neither IBA nor GOI has been taking seriously the ground level reality of bank staff and I have no hesitation in saying that IBA and GOI both are responsible for growing sickness in banks. It is they which failed to nourish Human resource properly and it is they who promoted bribery and flattery culture in banks.
Of course it is very much dangerous. Loyalty to organisation will get further diluted and cause much risk to already weak financial system.
Last but not the least , bank staff cannot take the risk of breaking unity of bank unions at this stage . They have to build pressure on UFBU as well as IBA and GOI to ensure immediate signing of wage agreement with respectable wage hike . Trade Union leaders have to focus on the demand related to wage hike and keep other demands in abeyance for the time being.
Bank staff has to understand that CMDs of each bank and all leaders of UFBU are not disloyal to bank staff. They have to stop abusing all and learn to pick good leaders and discard bad leaders. They have to expose evil workers of all banks who are stabbing from behind . They have to weed out cheaters and trust good people till last point of the agitation and till the ultimate goal is achieved.
Bank employees will have to ponder over various course of actions like strike , indefinite strike , non cooperation , mass casual leave, gheraos, demonstration, bycotting government schemes etc and come to a unanimous conclusion to achieve the goal of wage hike .
Unity must be maintained at any cost. Bank staffs have always to keep in mind that it is their beloved bank which give them bread and butter and they have to give all value to their banks. It is not the institution which are doing injustice to them , but it is the rulers, it is members of IBA , officials of Ministry of Finance , RBI officials,, Ministers in Central Government who are in control of these institutes ,who are cheating with banks staff and who are imposing on them the reign of injustice by denying proper wage hike . It is they who are undertaking branch expansion programme under the instruction of GOI without having adequate manpower. It is they who force bank staff to sit late and on holidays and Sundays to complete various tasks imposed by GOI. As such bank staffs have to teach lessons to them who are behind reign of injustice.
Have patience , think twice before taking a final call on agitational programme . I wish all the success. If needed cooperate with leaders of UFBU. Try to cover media too to justify the demand and to expose the ugly attempt of some section of politicians who tarnish bank staff. Make full preparation how demands put forward by bank staff before IBA is fully justified and proper. Fight against injustice has to be taken from facebook and twitters to offices of higher authorities, ministers and to public on road.
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