RBI staff stir hits Rs 50 lakh crore deals

Transactions amounting to almost Rs 50,00,000 crore were stalled by the all-India strike by over 2,500 employees and officers of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) On Friday, demanding update of the pension scheme.

Employees have proposed to approach Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for an early resolution of the matter, which has been a point of contention for five months now.

The strike affected real time settlement (RTGS) of transactions worth Rs 3,00,000 crore and clearing of around 18,00,000 cheques all over India, primarily in Mumbai (8,00,000 cheques) and metro centres, which amounted to approximately Rs 20,00,000 crore.

There were no settlements in the domestic money market, foreign exchange market and stock exchanges.

RBI employees had gone on strike for the same issue on October 21, 2008.

Some retired employees have already sought legal recourse. In response to one such case, the RBI intimated the court that it has no objection in updating the pension, but cannot do so violating government’s order, sources said.

RBI updated the pension in 2003 for pre-November 1997 retirees aligning their basic pension with the basic pay at that time. The decision was taken by the RBI’s central board in the presence of nominees of the Central Government.

According to a United Forum of RBI Officers and Employees statement, the RBI pension fund is self sustaining without any contribution from the exchequer. Further, the fifth pay commission for Central Government staff has stipulated that autonomous institutions such as the RBI can have their own pension schemes, subject to their fund positions. The RBI pension scheme is on the lines of that of the Central Government, according to an RBI circular dated March 1992.

Employees are of the view that the issue could be resolved amicably since the update of pension scheme requires only Rs 9-10 crore, while the corpus of RBI employees’ own contribution fund amounts to a whopping Rs 4,500-5,000 crore.

Other demands include grant of family pension at the rate of 30 per cent without ceiling, computation of pension at an enhanced rate and improvement in pension scheme and gratuity consequent to the acceptance of recommendations of the sixth Central pay commission report.