Iba Awaiting Ministry Decision On Wage Talks
The Indian Banks Association which has informed the finance ministry that there was a consensus among its members that IBA should negotiate an industry-wide wage settlement with employees is now awaiting the decision of the finance ministry.
According to an official with the association, the majority view of the members was that it should handle the settlement pertaining to all financial matters. All the private banks have indicated that they would be part of the industry-wide settlement.
Some banks including Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank had earlier indicated that they would prefer to be part of an industry-wide settlement for determining basic plus dearness allowance and would like to negotiate perquisites with their respective associations.
IBA officials said with political uncertainty it remains to be seen when they would receive permission from the government. Talks are at least not expected to begin before one-two months.
On the above issue, among the options that were suggested by the finance ministry to the banks included, negotiations at the industry level for all financial obligations, negotiations at the industry level for basic plus dearness allowance, negotiations after classifying the banks according to their financial strengths. The finance ministry had given the option to the banks to negotiate directly with the unions and associations without instead of giving the mandate to the IBA
These options were indicated to the bank chairmen when the finance minister met the chairmen of public sector banks a few months back to announce an autonomy package. Banks were given autonomy with respect to recruitment of specialist officers provide they fulfilled specified criteria laid down by the ministry among which were net profits for last three years, non performing assets of less than 9 per cent.