OPEN FOR TALKS WITH UNIONS,SAYS IBA CHIEF

With the two-day strike by the United Forum of Bank Unions hardly a fortnight away, the chief executive of the Indian Banks’ Association, Mohan V. Tanksale, has said the bank managements are open for negotiations.

“The IBA is open for negotiations with the unions on their demands,” Tanksale told Business Line. “We have invited them for discussions for January 29.”

He said the IBA, which represents the managements of nationalised, private and foreign banks in the country, had already offered a five per cent hike in salary. He also pointed out that the Chief Labour Commissioner had called the bank unions and the IBA for reconciliation on January 13, ahead of the proposed strike by UFBU on January 20-21.

Wage revision

UFBU, a collective of ten major unions of bank employees and officers, is planning to go on a nation-wide strike starting from the morning of January 20 to press for its demand for wage revision. The unions say the customary five-year wage revision settlement has been delayed by more than a year. The two-day strike is a follow-up to the December 19 strike which had forced the banking industry to shut down for a day. Prior to the strike, the IBA had offered a five per cent increase in monthly salary, but the UFBU declined the same saying it was too low to even start the negotiation process.

C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary of the All-India Bank Employees Association and former convenor of UFBU, said the IBA’s stand was totally disappointing and was forcing the unions to go on strike.