Uco Bank Board Revokes Wage Freeze Proposal
The Uco Bank board yesterday withdrew its wage freeze proposal, for which it had earlier passed a resolution on January 31, following a threat by all bank unions to call a strike on February 28. The boards decision was confirmed by Uco Bank executive director M M Vaish.
In a resolution passed in yesterdays meeting, the board stated that considering all the ramifications connected with the wage freeze, the proposal had been withdrawn.
Significantly, the new finance ministry nominee on the board, B B Vyas, was conspicuous by his absence from yesterdays meeting. The wage freeze resolution had been put forward by the finance ministry nominee on the banks board.
The board also considered the Personnel Department Memorandum dated February 7, 1997 submitted by the General Manager (Personnel) of the bank to the board and accepted the arguments put forward in the memorandum for revoking the proposed wage freeze.
The memorandum pointed out that service conditions of the bank officers and workers are guided respectively by the Officers Service Regulations framed by the bank and the Shastri Award of 1953 as modified by a number of Awards/bipartite settlements. These are industrywide settlements and any wage freeze would involve violations.
The memorandum also pointed out that the resolution violated the Memorandum of Understanding which the bank had entered into with all the bank workers associations and unions in January 1996, which urges avoidance of irritants in industrial relations.
The workers and trade union leaders were expectedly jubilant at the boards decision. Said Tarakeshwar Chakraborty, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association: We are glad that the proposal has been withdrawn. The industry has been spared avoidable unrest thanks to the wisdom shown by the board.
Although Chakraborty announced that the proposed strike on February 28 would now be called off, he asserted that the question whether government nominees should be allowed to interfere in the banking sector remained to be addressed.
Shantiranjan Sengupta, general secretary, All India Bank Officers Confederation, said: The whole attempt was not consistent with the declared policy of the government. They had to swallow their own mistake. We are benefited to the extent that unity among bank unions which would otherwise have been difficult has been achieved.