Bank union representatives meet finance minister

Meeting comes ahead of 4 days proposed All India Bank strike from Feb 25

Representatives from the public sector Bank Unions today met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to press their demand.

The meeting comes ahead of nationwide strike, called by the Unions, for four days starting February 25 and indefinite strike from March 16 across the country.

All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) officials have met Jaitley in New Delhi today and submitted a memorandum listing various demands, said C H Venkatachalam, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA).

"Today we only made a representation to the Finance Minister, it was not any negotiation meeting. Tomorrow Chief Labour Commissioner has called for negotiation meeting, where IBA will also be presented at New Delhi. Based on the outcome we will decide about the strike," said Venkatachalam, adding that as of now the scheduled strike is on.

The Unions have also demanded for employee director in Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and Corporation Bank, which is pending for sometime now and they sought Finance Minister's intervention to expedite appointment of employee director.

He added, during the meeting the Unions asked the government's intervention in early settlement of wage revision, timely appointment of workmen directors, merger of regional rural banks (RRBs) with their sponsor were some of the demands submitted today by the Unions to the Finance Minister.

Venkatachalm said the 40 minutes meeting with the Finance Minister was cordial and he listened to Union. Unions have called for a nationwide four day strike from February 25 followed by an indefinite strike in March onwards demanding wage revision.

From their initial offer of five increase in the wage bill, IBA has so far improved their offer to 13%. This amounts to an increase of Rs 4,095 crore in the annual Wage Bill.

"From the unions, we feel that this offer is inadequate and not satisfactory looking to the higher rate of inflation in the recent years and the multi-fold increase in the workload consequent to increase in volume of business and extension of various types of banking services including implementation of many schemes of the government," said Venkatachalam.