The Indian Banks Association signed the 11th bi-partite wage agreement with the representative of bank employees and made way for a 15 percent wage hike. This agreement applies to all the public sector banks along with a few older generation private sector banks and some foreign banks.
A bi-partite wage agreement is a platform that lets the bank employees renegotiate wages every five years. The bank employees in addition to the salary the wage agreement incorporates various employee benefits and incorporates any changes in service conditions. In the past, the computerization of banks was also made via a bi-partite agreement. The agreement also focuses on employee benefits aimed at promoting inclusion. The tenure of the previous agreement had ended in 2017, the deal got late and delayed due to several protracted negotiations and also due to COVID-19 pandemic led lockdown.
The employee union who signed the new agreement is called the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). They represent four Workmen Unions and four Officers’ Associations and also Bank Karamchari Sena Mahasangh (BKSM), who were parties to the agreement.
The Indian Banks Association in their statement has also informed that to instill the idea of competition among the employees and also to reward the employees they have come up with the idea of the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme which they will introduce for the first time. According to the report, the scheme will be introduced from the current fiscal. According to the information provided by the IBA, the PLI scheme in public sector banks will be based on the operating profit/net profit of the individual bank. The scheme is optional for private or foreign banks.
IBA chief executive Sunil Mehta said in a statement, “The Indian Banks’ Association is pleased to announce the conclusion of 11th Bipartite Wage Negotiations with bank unions and associations to be effective from November 1, 2017. The agreement reached today provides for a 15 percent increase in the payslip.”
The new and revised wage would mean that there would be an added outgo of ₹ 7,898 crores for the banks.
This wage agreement is very important and significant for several public sector employees, including those who work in Life Insurance Corporation and other public sector insurance companies, the Reserve Bank of India, and public financial institutions like Nabard. The government revises and upgrades pay scales for the employees of these institutions based on the wage agreement that they sign with the bank unions.
According to the All India Bank Employees Association, in the new agreement, they have included leave benefits like additional sick leave for those who have completed 30 years of service. Women employees can also avail sick leaves to take care of their sick children provided they produce a valid medical certificate. The new revised agreement also provides maternity leaves of nine months for the legal adoption of one child and also longer maternity leaves for mothers of twins. The agreement also says that the absence of employees due to curfew, riots, prohibitory order, natural calamities would be treated as a special leave on duty from now on.