Four Bank Unions Quit Forum

The nine-member umbrella union in the banking sector, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has ceased to exist with four unions leaving UFBU to form a co-ordination committee with the Shiv Sena union in Mumbai following the disagreement over the seventh bipartite wage settlement for the employees. UFBU was formed on February 14, 1997.

Speaking to Business Standard, UFBU president Tarakeswar Chakraborti said, "This is an expression of the government's attempt to divide bank employees' resistance against private bad loans for which bank employees and officers had launched a joint campaign under the banner of UFBU".

National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), Indian National Bank Employees Confederation (INBEC), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sabha (BMS) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) have left UFBU and jointly formed the co-ordination committee.

The All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO) and Bank Employees' Federation of India (BEFI) are the unions still vowing to fight the problems facing the banking sector.

Differences among the unions started over the seventh bipartite wage negotiations for the banking sector.

One section of UFBU demanded compensations to those opting for provident fund, who, in their opinion, will have to bear the cost of pension. It was declared by them that they would not come to any settlement unless this was resolved. "The rationale and consequential demand for compensation are unacceptable to me because all employees in SBI and foreign banks are already enjoying the retirement benefits, such as PF, gratuity and pension. We are unable to understand how in this context any question can arise for compensation," Chakraborti added.

Dispute arose over the cost of pension also. UFBU had suggested that since pension was in lieu of provident fund in terms of pension settlement of October 29, 1993, the cost of pension should be computed at 10 per cent, at par with PF, and not 26.5 per cent as insisted upon by IBA.

Hence the dispute arose over the 16.5 per cent of the pension cost, which is around 1.5 per cent of the total wage increase of 12.25 per cent.