CIRCULAR/GS/2013/14

CIRCULAR/GS/2013/14       27th May 2013

TO ALL OFFICERS:

Dear Friends,

NEXT ROUND OF TALKS WITH IBA ON 7th JUNE,2013

We reproduce hereunder UFBU circular on the captioned subject for your

information

“UFBU meeting was held on 23.5.2013 at New Delhi.Sri.Ashwani Rana, (General Secretary of NOBW) presided over the meeting. All the nine constituent unions were present in the meeting. A report on the developments since the last meeting was placed by the Convener along with the minutes of the previous meeting held on 31.1.2013, 22.2.2013 and 22.4.2013.

He also outlined the issues to be taken up with the Chairman of IBA in the afternoon. The meeting deliberated and took note of the attitude of IBA in dealing with the charter of demands on wage revision submitted by the UFBU. The meeting observed that even before any preliminary discussions could take place on the demands raised by the unions, the IBA was keen to foist their issues. The meeting pointed out that while the UFBU would always willing to discuss any issue raised by the IBA with an open mind, the same cannot take precedence over the demands for wage revision. The meeting also observed that the Government continued to pursue their reforms  agenda and have recently announced their decision to issue banking license to business and corporate houses. The pronouncements on merger and consolidation of nationalized banks as well as merger of Associate Banks with SBI are again being repeated frequently nowadays. The bill to allow 49% private capital in RRBs has been introduced in the parliament recently. Banking laws are sought to be amended to allow banks to indulge in speculative business. Banking jobs and services are increasingly being outsourced. Hence the meeting decided to continue our campaign on these challenges and resort to agitation when warranted.

The meeting also decided that we must expedite the resolution of the pending demands like compassionate appointment scheme, 5 Day banking, etc., and also the current issues like asking employees / officers to attend office on holidays in the name grid-based clearing system. The meeting also observed that the attacks in SBI by the management have not receded and the issue needs to be taken up by UFBU.

The Convener summed up the discussions as under :

1. As per the discussions of the meeting, the UFBU would pursue the demands on wage revision in the next round of talks with IBA scheduled on 07.06.2013.

2. The issues like adequate representation to unions while participating in the talks with IBA, change of procedure in allowing new unions for negotiations, compassionate ground appointment scheme, introduction of 5 Day banking, problems faced by employees and officers under grid-based Cheque Truncation System for clearing of cheques, proper guidelines to be issued on adhering to KYC norms to avoid harassments of innocent officers, managers, etc. would be taken up with the IBA Chairman during the meeting him in the afternoon. It was decided that the next meeting of UFBU will be held at Mumbai on 6.6.2013 on the eve of the next round of Bipartite Talks with IBA to be held on 7th June.

Meeting with Chairman, IBA :-

In the afternoon, the UFBU representatives met Mr. K.R. Kamath, Chairman, IBA in his office in Punjab National Bank, Head Office, Delhi. Mr. T.M. Bhasin, CMD, Indian Bank and Chairman of the negotiating Committee, Mr. Rajiv Rishi, ED, Indian Bank and Mr. R.K. Sethi, ED, PNB were also present.

In this meeting, we took up the following issues with him.

i. Wage revision should be expedited in a time bound manner.

ii. The number of representatives participating in the Talks with IBA needs to be reviewed and revised.

iii. The procedure of discussions by IBA with UFBU constituents should not undergo any change and the earlier pattern to continue.

iv. Based on UFBU’s letter to IBA, the compassionate ground appointment scheme should be introduced at the earliest as it has been already delayed inordinately.

v. The problems faced by employees and officers of Banks covered by the Southern Grid based clearing system should be resolved so that the staff do not face unwanted risks and also not forced to work on holidays.

vi. 5 Day banking should be introduced at the earliest.

vii. The IBA should intervene in the matter to normalize the industrial relations in SBI.

viii. IBA should issue proper guidelines to Banks to advise the staff to strictly adhere to KYC norms so that the Banks and the staff do not become vulnerable at a later stage. The Chairman gave a patient hearing to the issues raised by us but we found that these issues need to be further pursued”

Further developments will be informed in due course.

With greetings,

Yours Sincerely,

( A.R.Saifullah )

General Secretary

OFFICERS' UNITY-ZINDABAD A I B O C -ZINDABAD A I C B O F -ZINDABAD

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