(Kindly forward this communication to as many bank employees, public in general and other concerned as you can and

help in bringing out the real picture of so called historical wage revision in banks to their notice) MOVEMENT FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF 6TH PAY COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS IN BANKS Email: bjmishra22@gmail.com Date: 01.08.2011 Dear Bank Employees, STRIKE CALL BY BANK UNIONS FOR STRIKE ON 05TH August, 2011 (Friday) Should we go on strike every now and then . Thank you all for your overwhelming support in our fight to secure justice for tens of lacs of bank employees & their families. 2. We have been witnessing the selfish, shameless, anti employee and befooling attitude of so called bank leaders. While rest of the employees are denouncing the settlement/joint note and calling it as historical blunder/surrender, these leaders are patting the back of one another and terming the settlement as Historical. The IBA/Bank Managements/Govt. also supporting these leaders as all these are advancing a common goal of exploiting bank employees. The leaders are hailing the settlement as historical but not coming out with facts and figures whereas we have given the same for your knowledge. 3. After virtually surrendering before.IBA/Govt. and securing a charity like wage hike equal to DA for almost 3-4 quarters these leaders of no morale wasted a huge amount paid by the members on defending their misdeeds. Thanks to our vigilant members who put up a brave front and opposed them across the country. The pressure and opposition of members were so high that they had to cancel their visits to several places, had to go back without addressing people, the so called popular leaders lost their courage to look into the eyes of their members. 4. A large section of employees refused to give levy. Its really encouraging to note the opposition & criticism put in by bank officers despite several odds. These so called leaders have been cut to their size by the unity and strength shown by you. 5. A real short strike for few days was enough to force this anti bank employee govt./IBA to give more than what given to govt. employees and what bank employees really deserved but it was never done though on few occasions strikes were done just to show the gallery/members that they were putting in a hard battle to achieve a very good wage revision but behind the curtain what happened is a public knowledge now. 6. The Bank Unions/Associations have again given a call for strike on 05.08.2011. We have been receiving queries from our friends whether they should go on strike or not. They are trying to find justification of strikes every now and then that too without any convincing reason or achieving something. They are already hand to mouth. No substantial, justified and comparable wage hike has been given to them. They cannot afford frequent deduction from such a low salary every now and then 7. Friends, when these leaders had an opportunity to secure increase in wages at least at par with govt. employees, if not higher, they voluntarily & in their own interest settled for a negligible amount. And now to axe their own grind and to secure a political mileage they are now trying to push the members again on strike on 5th August, 2011. . 8. The unions/associations are not trying to address the main issues of salary hike/terminal benefits/improvement in service conditions. Rather they are distracting our attention from the main issue. Some of the issues made a point to go on proposed strikes have been examined as under: Distracting the attention of Officers/employees from Low salaries. Unions/Associations are trying every effort to distract the attention of bank officers/employees from core issue of their right to get comparable and justifiable salary by raising other issues. Some of the main issues and demands which are made a cause to go on strike are being dealt herein below: i. Do not Privatise public sector banks: You are well aware friends that the primary objective of nationalization was to make Indian banking system a potent instrument for accelerating the pace of development process by extending banking services to the unbanked areas in the country and making bank credit available to the low strata of society which was at the mercy of the private moneylenders. So many social benefit schemes of Central as well as State govts. are being implemented through banks by state as well as

central govt. There is no move to privatise public sector banks. Successful implementation of Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme-2008 through banks has proved banking systems ability to catch votes. Moreover financing under govt. sponsored scheme and potential NPA is also a dissuading factor. No govt. can think of privatizing a public sector bank, though dilution in equity though keeping reigns in govt. hands cant b ruled out. The circular issued regarding strike has no mention of any specific move of govt. to privatise public sector banks. The issue seems to just have been added to justify the unwarranted strike. ii. Do not reduce govt. equity in public sector banks: The govt. has reduced its equity in many public sector banks in past. But unions despite their half hearted opposition couldnt stop the govt. Again the circular issued regarding strike doesnt contain any specific move of govt. to privatise public sector banks. This issue also seems to have been added to allure the employees to go on strike with no justification. iii. Do not outsource permanent banking jobs and normal banking services & & iv. Do not violate provisions of Bipartite Settlement on outsourcing : Both the demands made in the circular are self contradictory. At one hand the unions admitting to have a bipartite settlement on outsourcing and on the other hand they are opposing outsourcing. Despite their oppositions several jobs are being outsourced. Despite so many years of bipartite settlement history, the unions could not evolve any mechanism to check violation of bipartite provisions. Their demand about violation of bipartite settlement in itself proves that bipartite mechanism has failed and is not in the interest of common bank men. How poor state of affairs. First they push the employees in the name of getting something through bipartite settlement subsequently they keep on pushing us into strike to check the violation of bipartite provisions. Why this bipartite drama then? v. Do not proceed with merger and acquisition We have witnessed so many strikes in the name of merger and acquisitions. Friends, merger and acquisition is a need & call of the day. Unions/Associations who were opposing computerization& outsourcing tooth & nail could not stop it. Instead of opposing it, it is wise to achieve something over & above given to govt. employees, in the name of merger and acquisition. Otherwise also merger/acquisitions are in the interest of employees & nations. A big organization is more sensitive to its employees needs/problems. LIC/SBI/ & Railways are live example of being a huge organization and running successfully. Pension is a 3rd retiral benefit in SBI. LIC is also much better in terms of salary and working conditions. Though salary paid to officers in SBI/LIC is also much less than comparable categories. It is the leaders who may feel unsafe because in the process a small union in one bank will be wiped out of arena & leaders with smaller membership/presence may lose their sheen/importance & most likely are forced to work or transferred as general employee. It is not the merger of one bank into a big bank, they are afraid of rather it is the fear of a small union merging into a big unit/union and losing its existence. Every now and then a; call for strike against merger & acquisitions is not in the interest of common employee/nation. Moreover there is no immediate threat to this effect. vi. Provide adequate staff in banks through recruitments to maintain and improve customer services. Stop violation of working hours: For last so many years banks are on recruitment drive. But due to such a low wages/salary they are unable to attract and retain the staff. Attrition rate is very high. Superannuation/voluntary retirements in large numbers are taking place. No. of new people joining the banks are much less than the no. of people leaving the bank. This situation is prevalent for quite a long time. The unions have contributed to aggravate the situation. Their sub-standard bipartite settlements/joint notes have made the banking job as least sought. This problem cant be sorted out through strikes. Only a comparable and respectable compensation package can solve the problem. Following data in respect of Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda are indicative of how unattractive is a bank job even at SMGS-IV. Recruitments made by UNION BANK OF INDIA during last 5 years (01.04.2006 to 31.03.2011) Cadre (a) Personnel Selected (b) Personnels Joined (out of b) (c ) Personnels still in Banks service (out of c) (d) Personnels resigned or left the Bank (c-d) (e)

Clerk 2312 1850 1284 566 Officers JMGS-I 3682 3220 2792 428 MMGS-II 546 500 440 60 MMGS-III 337 289 240 49 SMGS-IV 19 15 13 2 Recruitments made by BANK OF BARODA during last 5 years (01.04.2006 to 31.03.2011) Cadre (a) Personnel Selected (b) Personnel Joined (out of b) (c ) Personnel still in Banks service (out of c) (d) Personnel resigned or left the Bank (c-d) (e) Clerk 3988 3786 2542 1244 Officers JMGS-I 4038 3836 2955 881 MMGS-II 327 310 231 79 MMGS-III 78 70 52 18 SMGS-IV 30 22 7 15 vii. Implement 5 day banking: The demand appears to be very lucrative. But what about 5 and half day banking. We used to have half day working on Saturdays. Over a period of time it converted into full day banking and even much more. Due to increasing work load working hours on other week days also extended by 2-3 hours and even more. Officers have to work on Sundays and holidays. Meetings are called after working hours, officers are forced to work on Sundays/holidays.. Business hours have been increased to 6 hours with no opposition from unions/associations knowing very well that at least 2-3 hours back office time is needed to finish the daily work. This demand is not very beneficial in the interest of officers. Govt. can accept this demand. But with the introduction of 5 days week normal working hours would be increased by at least 1 and half hour a day. Officers presently working for almost 10 hours a day will have to work approx. 12 hours a day in a 5 day banking set up. Most of the officers are posted away from their place of postings. Taking into consideration their commutation time (2+2 =4 hours) daily they will have to spend at least 16 hours daily to earn such a low salary. In a time when officers are not able to avail their P/Ls and other leaves and they are lapsed, how can they be benefitted from this 5 days week concept. Now a days on many occasions officers have to work on Sundays and after implementing 5 days week, they would have to work on Saturdays also. This demand turn an officer into a machine. Health risks would also higher. This demand should be achieved but at the same time it should be ensured that sufficient no. of officers are recruited/ retained and this can be possible only when appropriate comparable salary in terms of Pillai Committee recommendations is given to officers. viii. Regulated and defined working hours for bank officers: The working hours are prescribed by different banks. The one day strike on any issue is not going to serve any purpose. Its no more a secret that the branches where association leaders are working as Chief Incumbent or as an officer also remain open beyond normal working hours and also on Sundays and holidays. Instead of pushing lacs of employees on one day strike, a Work to Rule Call could have had a real impact. But the unions/associations never give such a call. Only God knows, why ? 9. The strike call is actually not going to serve any purpose. Even at the time of salary revision we have seen, no sincere agitation was launched, no indefinite strike call given. The proposed strike has nothing to do with the real concerns of bank employees rather it is politically motivated strike call and few issues, not very relevant though, have been added to push lacs of bank employees to strike. If you remember, the unions pushed several lacs of bank employees into strike on 6 & 7th August, 2008 to achieve 17.5% financial load which had already been offered by IBA on the ground that IBA backed out from their offer. Instead of achieving their demands, they did strike to achieve the offer already made. If 17.5% was acceptable, why it was not accepted when offered first. Because of their strategic failure they pushed common bankmen on unwarranted strike and thousands of crores of rupees were deducted from their salaries and gifted to their banks. It appears that they wanted to show that they struggled hard and achieved 4% extra. (from 13.5%).

10. Besides attracting civil liability, Bank managements act of deducting levy amounts to criminal breach of trust and is running a risk of legal scrutiny. Friends Unions/Bank Management have taken the bank employees for granted. Unions are going for salary revision without a mandate & bank managements too are deducting levy without a mandate of concerned employee. Others are deciding your fate without your consent. 11. The unions/associations are claiming that the settlement is as per the wishes of employees. How lame is the excuse in itself? Can any employee would ever like to earn salary much less that what he deserves or what is paid to his comparable categories? The answer needs no endorsement. 12. The salary earned by a bank officer is close to the pension paid to a comparable category of retired govt. officer. The salary earned by a bank officer is for working approx. 9-10 hours per day (Sunday/holiday) with a lot of responsibility & accountability whereas a retired govt. officer carries no such risk & responsibility. 13. Friends, common bank employees are pushed to strike for politically motivated issues concerning govt. policies relating to IMF/World Bank etc. but no agitation/no strike is done for imparting financial benefits and improving service conditions of bankmen. No agitation for imparting benefit of gratuity with retrospective effects. No taking up the issue of non payment of interest on CRR. 14. The savings made by banks on account of not giving adequate hike to their staff results in increased profits of banks. The profit earned by banks is passed on to the govt. Such a profit may also be used to pay the salaries of central govt. employees meaning thereby the salary to central govt. employees is being borne by bank employees. The unions/associations failed to prove this point. 15. By not demanding adequate hike in salary Unions/Associations appear to offering the govt. to recover the cost of Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme-2008 for Agriculturists. 16. Friends, Unions failed to stress that the govt. granted several thousand crores of rupees to Air India which meant that it subsidized the people who travelled by air but the bankmen have been ignored who are burning the midnight oil and working for the poor people of the society. 17. A bank strike develops a perception among public in general that bank employees keep going on strike demanding higher salaries. The common public do not know the real picture. 18. When a real agitation and strike was needed, they did nothing. What they have achieved, particularly officers associations is enumerated in nutshell hereunder: a) salary of an officer has been reduced to less than half of its counterpart and even less. We should not forget that it is virtually for average approx. 9-10 hour working and not 7 hours (including recess). If discounted the salary would be approx. 70% of what is paid to an officer. The bank Officers are getting salary below the recommendations of 5th CPC i.e. they are getting salary approx. as per 4th Pay Commission. b) After a negotiation of approx. 30 months what they achieved is before us. 45% revision in basic pay at initial stage of JMGS-I and much less at later stages. c) Govt. employees recd. Salary arrears in lacs of rupees on implementation of 6th pay commission recommendations but the helpless bankers got meager increase and even had to pay income-tax from their own pocket. d) Why the officers Association not demanded parity with group A Officers as recommended by Pillai Committee and accepted by the govt? Why the same was not capitalized? . Their approach is suggestive of their ulterior motives. It may be noted that 6th pay Commission gave its recommendations for 40 lac employees (civilians/defence services) in just 18 month time and dealt with entire issues related to service matters. As per 5th Pay Commission recommendations, the govt. merged 50% of the DA with basic pay w.e.f. 01.04.2004 during the effective period of 5th pay commission itself. Why this drama of negotiations for 30 months for achieving so less. e) Pension scheme for workmen is one of the worst of its kind. f) Huge recovery made in the name of pension. Besides recovering CPF, 56% of a retired employee (as on the relevant date) own PF recovered back in the name of granting pension option. The PF saved by him over decades has been snatched away to grant him pension meaning thereby that pension to such an employee is given from his own Provident Fund. 2.8 times of pay also recovered from existing employees. SHAME on the signatories. R.B.I. has given 4 pension options to its employees with no recovery. Pension Scheme also implemented in LIC/GIC with no recovery. The top basic pay of officers

at each scale in LIC/GIC is approx. Rs.8000/= more than bank officers i.e. a difference of approx. Rs.13000/= p.m. presently. Though because of very low increase to bank officers they could not get appropriate increase yet they achieved better. g) Rate of int. on P/F of govt. employees is 9.5% and to bank employees it is normally ranging between 8 to 8.5%. For last few years the rate on PF is much less than govt. employees. The unions are not bothered. h) Enhanced Gratuity limit to bank employees made effective w.e.f. 24.05.2010 whereas to govt. employees it was made effective from 01.01.2006. several lacs of rupees loss to bank employees retired between this period. i) If an officer is at estimated loss of Rs.40000/= p.m. since 01.01.2006, by July, 2011 i.e. in 67 months he has suffered a loss of approx. 26.80 lac + approx. 5.00 lac intt. i.e. a loss of Rs.31.80 lac, The loss is a continuing one at would continue to increase at higher rate. The estimate is only indicative and can vary. j) accumulation of P/L and its encashment on retirement is available for 240 days to bank employees whereas to govt. employees it is 300 days. k) No stagnation to govt. employees up to the Basic Pay 77000/= (including grade pay 10000). To an estimate approx. 6070% bank employees are on stagnation. The officers in scale I, II and III stagnate at such a low basic pay of Rs.25700/=, Rs.28100/= and Rs.31500/= . l) When there is no ceiling of financial load to govt. employees and 6th Pay commission recommendations implemented without any hitch, why the associations accepted any ceiling of financial load. m) Why pension load to be a part of financial load. The unions boast of securing 17.5% salary increase. They dont tell that it includes pension load as well. Though no actual figure supplied, the pension load is believed to be around 5%. Thus actual increase is approx. 12.5%. n) We are befooled in the name of 5 yr settlement. Given Most of the employees on stagnation no increase upto 5 years whereas govt. employees have been ensured 3% increment every year meaning thereby they would get 15% in 5 years besides pay commission recommendations when due. Our association is happy to achieve approx. 12.5% load after 5 years. SHAME. o) Reserve Bank of India used to give interest on CRR up to March, 2007. The interest has been stopped to be paid from April, 2007 by amending RBI Act. The move directly affected banks profitability. Banks have to pay interest on funds parked with RBI as CRR. The RBI is saving thousands of crores of rupees. The surplus income of RBI is transferred to Govt. The govt. uses the money to pay salary to its employees and on other heads. Salary of bank employees are denied to be increased appropriately. Meaning thereby bank employees are contributing to other sections of employees. Issue not taken up by bank unions. p) Given the responsibilities/accountability shared by a bank officer, the salary must be much more than the comparable category of govt. officer. Friends, the above list is not exhaustive. There are many more issues affecting bank employees. It appears that the whole negotiation process was a drama and the leaders were negotiating some other agenda. Instead of launching an agitation on the above they are pushing bank employees into strike on issues concerning IMF, World Bank, monetary policy etc. It appears that they are under impression that they are running the world economy. 19. Friends the strike appears to be politically motivated and has no concern with basic issues of respectable/comparable salary and improvement in service/working conditions. The peoples have rejected the anti-public policies of their political parties which they are affiliated to. They have been ousted and lost the govt. Now the time has come when w e should tell them in no ambiguous terms that we reject there anti employee policies and not ready to follow their dictats. We can go on indefinite strike to achieve what we deserve but not going to be used any more. 20. Para 6 of joint note dt. 27.04.2010 states The Officers Associations on behalf of the officer-employees in banks listed in Annexures II & III agree that the understandings reached as detailed in Annexure I hereto are in full satisfaction of their demands. When officers Associations agreed that their all demands have been satisfied, Why this strike Call? 21. Strike is never done on Monday, Saturday or other days following or preceding a holiday to have more impact. The

strike call is also not given at the time of closing to have a real impact. Why dont they give a call for indefinite strike and settle all the issues in one go. Why they keep issues like pension, compassionate appointments etc. pending for several years. Since the strike is done with a view to have least impact, least results are achieved. Least salary is increased. The strike is a mere shadow fighting (Noora-Kushti). The issues they have chosen to go on strike could be achieved by giving a WORK TO RULE call only, which they never do. We should not let these leaders use our strength in furthering their personal & political agenda Friends, this is not the time to be lethargic, we should continue our fight to achieve what we deserve. This communication is aimed to enable you recognize & identify their true colour. Please take a wise and considered decision about going on strike on every call given by the unions/associations which has no relation to the real concerns of bank employees. If you find that the strike call is not in your interest, please be firm and say NO to such strike. Since it has been established that these leaders are not working in the interest of employees. Strengthening them will certainly weaken you. 22. The supporters of strike cant give even a single reason to go on strike & there are about 100 reasons that bankers should not go on strike. The only reason one can put forward in support of going on strike could be Its Union/leaders call, we should obey it. Here comes the answerLet it be decided first who came in existence first? Employee or union/leaders. Whether a member should work in the interest of union/leaders or the union/leaders should work in the interest of member? We are not against the strike/agitation done in the interest of bank employees but it should not be an eye wash. There should not be strikes on 20 occasions to settle 20 demands. Let there be a real and serious agitation/indefinite strike to settle all issues in one go. 23. Friends, you have to watch your interests yourselves. After all God helps those who help themselves. Deci de yourself whether you should go on strike or say it a big NO. Thanking you. With best wishes. Yours sincerely, (B.J. MISHRA) Convenor Keep united Keep Aware Keep Vigilant Keep standing firm Keep exercising your Right to Know And the ultimate victory will be yours. http://before.IBA/Govt before.IBA