Vide our Circular dated 27.01.2020 we had informed our unions and members about the developments relating to the conciliation meeting held by the Chief Labour Commissioner at Delhi.

·         After our explaining the demands of our strike notice, and after a lot of discussions IBA came with an offer 13 % hike in payslip cost i.e. Rs.7,108 crores provided we agree to defer our proposed 2 days strike.

·         IBA stated that this hike in payslip cost would involve a total cost of Rs.12,391 crores if superannuation cost is taken into account.

·         On our rejecting this offer, they increased the offer to 13.5%.

·         They also informed that our demand for additional loading and merger of special allowance with basic pay can be considered provided the same can fit into the overall costs.

·         Regarding 5 Day Banking, they informed that even though they are not in favour of it, they can have an open mind if other stakeholders also agree to the same.

·         On improvement in Family Pension, IBA reiterated that the issue stands referred to the Government and a favourable decision is expected.

·         On our demand for updation of pension, IBA stated that it may not be possible to go for the same in one go in view of huge cost involved but would be willing to look at it favourably by beginning to cover retirees of some earlier settlement periods by working out the same within some affordable cost.

·         On scrapping of NPS for post 2010 employees, IBA informed that the same is not in their purview as the Scheme is in view of Government’s policy.

With this, the IBA appealed to the Unions to defer our 2 days’ strike.

After mutual consultation with the constituent union representatives present in the discussions, we conveyed to the IBA that if the offer is improved to 15%, we can consider deferment of the two days strike action and sorting out remaining issues by further rounds of negotiations. IBA regretted their inability to improve their offer and hence the discussions ended at this stage and hence UFBU decided to go ahead with the strike.

After we dispersed from the IBA meeting, there was again an invitation from the Chairman of IBA, Mr Rajneesh Kumar (Chairman of SBI) to meet him for further discussions in his office in SBI Corporate Centre.

Hence our representatives reassembled and attended this meeting. In this meeting, Mr. Rajnish Kumar, Mr. Rajkiran Rai. G, Chairman, Negotiating Committee and Mr.Alok Kumar Choudhury, DMD, SBI were present.

During this meeting, the IBA Chairman offered as under:

·         Payslip hike of 15% inclusive of the cost outgo on account of PL Encashment of 5 days/7 days per year as offered in the last round of discussions.

·         Alternatively, this 15% hike in cost (Rs.7,900 crores) can be taken entirely in payslip components in which case the PL encashment facility will not be available.

He further stated that looking to heavy impacting cost on superannuation benefits, merger of special allowance and loading more than 2% would not be possible. He also informed that looking to the present banking scenario and customer requirements and having regard to the present number of bank holidays, etc, it would not be possible to agree to our demand of 5 days banking.

After our persuasion and representation, he agreed that merger of special allowance and additional loading can be considered and payscales can be restructured within the mutually agreed overall cost. We also insisted that our demand for 5 Day Banking should not be declined and hence it was understood that this demand would be kept open for further discussion. With this, the IBA again repeated their appeal to defer our strike. Since this was not acceptable to the Unions, we could not agree with the IBA.