Sandhu to hold talks with IBA representatives

Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu will today hold talks with representatives of Indian Bankers Association (IBA) for an early settlement of wage revision negotiations.
"Reserve Bank of India is negotiating with the banks employees as there is a gap between the demand and offer. Today, I am also going to call IBA representatives to break this dead block as earliest as possible,"Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu said on the sidelines of an event here.
The wage revision of public sector bank employees has been due since November, 2012.
In the last round of wage revision settlement signed in 2010 for 2007-12, the management had given 17.5 per cent raise in the total salary.

Bank employees had gone on two-day nation-wide strike in February to press for their demands. Citing high inflation, it rejected the management's offer of a 10 per cent hike in the cash component of the pay package.
There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a combined employee strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.
Sandhu further said that the number of accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has touched nearly 5.1 crore. Besides, 1.6 crore RuPay debit cards have been issued so far.