No improvement in Conciliation meeting held on 5.11.2014 – Bank employees Strike on 12.11.2014

No improvement in Conciliation meeting held on 5.11.2014 – Bank employees Strike on 12.11.2014

No improvement in IBAs offer – UFBU decides to go ahead with the strike on 12.11.2014

Conciliation meeting held by CLC today(5.11.2014) – No improvement in IBAs offer – CLC calls for further meeting on 10th instant – UFBU decides to go ahead with the strike

Further to the Strike notice served on the IBA by the UFBU, conciliation meeting was held today in New Delhi by Mr. P.P. Mitra Chief Labour Commissioner, Ministry of Labour, Government of India. IBA was represented by Mr. M.V. Tanksale, Chief Executive, Mr. Unnikrishnan, Dy. Chief Executive and other officials. UFBU was represented by all the constituent unions.

During the conciliation proceedings, the IBA contended that due to the reducing profitability of the Banks, they are unable to accept the demands of the UFBU and stated that for the sake of an amicable settlement, they would be willing to consider improving their present offer provided UFBU agrees to substantially reduce the demands. IBA also suggested that UFBU should defer the strike so that the negotiations may be further continued.

On behalf of the UFBU, we explained the reasonability and justification of our demands and stated that the IBAs offer falls too short of our expectations and hence not at all acceptable. We further stated that looking to the runaway inflation as well as the increasing stress and workload under which bank employees and officers are working now-a-days, we deserve adequate wage revision. We also said that besides improvement in emoluments and service conditions, other demands like 5 day banking, regulated working hours for officers, improvement in pension scheme, extending the old pension scheme to the newly recruited employees, etc. are also needed to be resolved but the IBA is not forthcoming on these issues.

IBA informed that they are willing to continue the negotiations further and appealed to the UFBU to defer the strike to facilitate a better atmosphere. UFBU informed that the strike call has been forced on the Unions due to the unhelpful approach and unacceptable offer of the IBA and reiterated its preparedness for further negotiations provided IBA would come forward with substantial improvement in their offer.

After hearing both sides, the Chief Labour Commissioner suggested that both IBA and the UFBU should take steps to reconcile the differences and reach an amicable settlement. He further advised the IBA to talk to the UFBU to find out how the strike could be averted. He also adjourned the conciliation proceedings to 3-00 PM on 10th November, 2014 for further discussions.

Thus, our demands remained unresolved and UFBU decided to go ahead with the strike. Hence, we call upon all our constituent unions and members to march on to 12th November 2014 strike withouut any let up.

sd/-
M V Murali
Convener