Trade unions want five-days a week work for PSB staff; talks on with IBA

Bank employee unions have withdrawn the four-day strike call planned later this month following temporary truce with the Indian Banks Association (IBA), the industry lobby of Indian banks.

IBA has been negotiating with the trade union representatives to avoid disruptions in banking services.

The unions, under the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which had earlier called off the one-day nationwide strike on Wednesday, said they have decided to hold back the four-day strike originally planned from 21 January, as well.

“Since we are negotiating with IBA, we wouldn’t be going ahead with the strike plan. During our talks, IBA’s approach has been positive and discussions will continue,” said a union office bearer.

Both the IBA and trade unions have formed three joint-committees to look into various aspects such as pension issues of employees, wage revision and general human resource issues including the recruitment of staff and restricting the work hours to five days a week.

Trade unions have pitched for five-day working for employees at state-run banks instead of the six day schedule currently, saying that they are willing to work extra hours during week days if permitted five-days week.

Even though IBA has agreed to take up this demand with the finance ministry for discussion, the ministry is learned to have expressed its reservations on this demand, according to a person in the know.

“The finance ministry is not very keen to cut the working hours to five days a week,” said the person, who didn’t want to be identified.

Earlier, IBA improved their offer of wage revision from 11 percent to 12.5 percent even as the trade unions have come down to 19.5 percent from 23 percent earlier.

Trade unions, under UFBU, which claim support of about 10 lakh employees, majority of them from 27 public sector banks, have been pressing their demand for wage revision since the last five-year bilateral contract between trade unions and IBA expired in October 2012.

Unlike the past, trade unions have relatively softened their stance on the negotiations saying if they are expecting a holistic package and not just dealing with the wage revision percentage.

IBA’s management committee is scheduled to meet later this month to discuss various demands of trade unions.