ALLOWANCES EXISTING AND REVISED

-- AWARD STAFF --
Allowance EXISTING. REVISED

D. A.
0.15% per slab on the pre-revised basic pay

0.15% per slab on the revised basic pay

H.R.A.
10%/9%/7.5%/7% of the present basic pay depending on the population group

25%20%/15%/10% of the revised basic pay depending on the population group

C.C.A.
No CCA is payable as of now.

6% for lower CCA centres and 8% for higher CCA centres, without any ceiling

PQP/ Graduation Pay
Rs.250/- p.m. after 1 year
Rs.490/- p.m. after 2 years
Rs.740/- p.m. after 3 years
Rs.990/- p.m. after 4 years
Rs.1230/- p.m. after 5 years.

Equal to the last increment drawn
Equal to the last 2 increments drawn
Equal to the last 3 increments drawn
Equal to the last 4 increments drawn
Equal to the last 5 increments drawn

FPP
Clerks – Rs.915 to Rs.940.
Sub-staff - Rs.460 to Rs.470.

Equal to the last increment drawn

Transport Allowance
For both Clerks and Sub-staff -
Up to 15th stage of the scale of Pay -
Rs. 225/- per month
16th stage of the scale of Pay and above - Rs.275/- per month

Clerks - 15 Litres of petrol
Sub-staff - 12 Litres of petrol
Consequent to this revision, no conveyance expenses for any purpose (except for cash remittances) will be payable separately, for travel within the distance of 8 Kms from the branch/
office. For this purpose, commutation between home and office will not be reckoned as travel on duty.

Medical Aid
For both Clerks and Sub-staff – Rs.2,000

For Clerks – Rs.6,000
For Sub-staff – Rs.4,500

LFC – Once in 2 Years
Distance - Clerks – 2000 Kms
Sub-staff - 2500 Kms
Eligible Class of Travel –
Clerks – A.C. 2 Tier
Sub-staff - A.C. 3 Tier
Distance - Clerks – 2500 Kms
Sub-staff - 2500 Kms
Eligible Class of Travel –
Clerks – A.C. 2 Tier
Sub-staff - A.C. 3 Tier

LFC – Once in 4 years
Distance - Clerks – 2000 Kms
Sub-staff - 2500 Kms
Eligible Class of Travel –
Clerks – A.C. 2 Tier
Sub-staff - A.C. 3 Tier
Distance - Clerks – 5000 Kms
Sub-staff - 5000 Kms
Eligible Class of Travel –
Clerks – A.C. 2 Tier
Sub-staff - A.C. 3 Tier

Halting Allowance
Clerks – Rs.300/Rs.375/Rs.500
Sub-staff - Rs.185/Rs.250/Rs.375

Clerks – Rs.450/Rs.600/Rs.800
Sub-staff - Rs.300/Rs.450/Rs.600

Washing Allowance (for Sub-staff)
Rs.100 per month.

Rs.300 per month.

Split Duty Allowance
Rs.75 per month.

Clerks - Rs.375 per month.
Sub-staff – Rs.250 per month.

Cycle Allowance (for Sub-staff)
Rs.75 per month.

In view of the enhanced transport allowance as stated above, cycle allowance stands withdrawn.

NEW BASIC AND ARREAR FOR BANK OFFICERS

‪#‎Wage‬ ‪#‎Revision‬ ‪#‎XBipartite‬ ‪#‎Settlement‬ ‪#‎Negotiation‬ ‪#‎Meeting‬‪#‎PayHike‬ ‪#‎NewBasic‬ ‪#‎Arrear‬

Basic+ 60.15% = New Pay * 2% = New Basic &

13% will be distributed as HRA, CCA & other salary slip components .......

Old BP New NP Incrse Arrear

14500 26700 5127 138429
15100 27800 5332 143964
15700 28900 5538 149526
16300 30000 5744 155088
16900 31100 5949 160623
17500 32200 6156 166212
18100 33300 6361 171747
18700 34400 6566 177282
19400 35700 6829 184383
20100 37000 7091 191457
20900 38500 7410 200070
21700 40000 7728 208656
22500 41400 7914 213678
23300 42900 8233 222291
24100 44400 8551 230877
24900 45900 8870 239490
25700 47300 9055 244485
26500 48800 9374 253098
27300 50300 9693 261711
28100 51800 10011 270297
28900 53200 10197 275319
29700 54700 10515 283905
30600 56400 10890 294030
31500 58200 11189 302103

Exclusive of Arrear for sat...

‪‎Wage‬ ‪‎Revision‬ ‪‎X Bipartite‬ ‪‎Settlement‬ : Calculations

‪#‎Wage‬ ‪#‎Revision‬ ‪#‎XBipartite‬ ‪#‎Settlement‬ : Calculations

Old ‪#‎Basic‬ ‪#‎Pay‬ + Add 60.15% ‪#‎DA‬ as ‪#‎Merger‬ + 2% Load = New Basic

‪#‎HRA‬ will be increased by 10 bps approximately

New ‪#‎Allowance‬ may be introduced for rest 3% or other ‪#‎Salary‬ ‪#‎Slip‬Allowance may be hiked

‪#‎Officers‬ having ‪#‎Leased‬ ‪#‎Accomodation‬ will not see much increase

‪#‎Banks‬ ‪#‎Management‬ will get benefitted as ‪#‎PF‬ to be deduct only on Basic & Only 2% hike in Basic

‪#‎Staff‬ retiring up to 31.10.17 will be in loss as ‪#‎Pension‬ calculates on last 12 month basic and only 2% increase in basic will not affect much to them

‪#‎Award‬ staff see higher growth as HRA will increased in salary slip.

#DA ‪#‎slabs‬ to be reduced to 0.10 from 0.15

Only benefit we got 2 Saturday off.... One step towards ‪#‎5DayBanking‬

Ask your leaders if not believe.....

UNDERSTANDING ‎DA‬ ‪‎MERGER‬ AND ‪‎WAGE‬ ‪‎REVISION‬ PROCESS!!

UNDERSTANDING ‪#‎DA‬ ‪#‎MERGER‬ AND ‪#‎WAGE‬ ‪#‎REVISION‬ PROCESS!!
________________________

In the meeting 12.08.2013 it is decided to merge 4440 points of CPI with Basic pay.
What does it mean?

As on 01.11.2011 CPI was 4440 for D.A calculation i.e 401 slabs, 60.15%(@0.15% per slab)

As on 01.11.2012 CPI was 4876 for D.A calculation i.e 510 slabs, 76.50% (@0.15% per slab)

Now after merging 4440 points D.A. for balance 436 points i.e 109 slab will remain.

This 109 slab will not be calculated @ 0.15% as it will lead to giving D.A on D.A +basic.

Hence it will be reduced.

To what extent?

In 8 th bi-partite settlement D.A. merger was at 2288 points. % per slab was 0.18%
In 9th bi-partite settlement D.A. merger was at 2836 points. % per slab was 0.15%
How 0.18 became 0.15?

It is simple maths. (2288/2836)*0.18=0.145=0.15%

Likewise this time it will be (2836/4440)*0.15=0.0958=0.10%

This rate is not announced officially, but this is the method of calculation.

What is the effect of merging D.A with Basic Pay?

Example:

On 01.11.2012 Basic Pay =8000. D.A. (old)=6120 (@76.50%)
Total=14120

On 01.11.2012 Basic Pay=12812. (160.15% of 8000).D.A. (New)=1396.50(109*0.10%)
Total=14208

Now, Basic pay of 8000 becomes 12812.
IBA has not revealed the % of wage increase yet.

Any % announced will be calculated on 12812 and not on 8000.

This is the effect of D.A.merger.

All our benefits like ‪#‎HRA‬, ‪#‎CCA‬, ‪#‎PF‬ ‪#‎CONTRIBUTION‬, ‪#‎PENSION‬,‪#‎COMMPUTATION‬,‪#‎LOAN‬ ‪#‎ELIGIBILITY‬ etc.,are calculated on the basis of basic pay only. Hence we have to increase Basic pay substantially.

Therefore this merger point is a good one.

Effective date from 01.11.2012 and its importance:

In previous ‪#‎settlements‬ effective date was postponed by an year or so and different heads like B.P, D.A.,Spl.Allow, etc., was given effect on different dates therby loosing the arrears substantially.
This time it is achieved from the day one.
Posted as received.

Payment Banks - 5 Day Banking

RBI has invited applications for Payment Banks, just tried to analyse the impact of these banks on us (PSB’s).  Both positive and negative aspects have emerged and also very high probability of five day banking.

According to RBI, payment banks can perform the following

• Open CASA accounts, initially they will be restricted to a maximum balance of 1.00 lac. ( RBI says initially later on they may withdraw this ceiling )
•  Act as a Business Correspondent for other Banks.

The above two are the most important features for detailed guidelines please visit RBI websitehttp://rbi.org.in/scripts/bs_viewcontent.aspx?Id=2900.

SBI,  Reliance Joint Venture for payment bank, SBI with its vast experience in banking and reliance known for its ability to roll out world class  projects within stipulated time is a deadly combination. Within a span of 5 years, their Kiosks, and BC’s( In number ) will exceed our branches.

Positive side of this, No crowd in branches.  Each bank will have a tie up with one or other payment bank for acting as a BC.  They will handle all our receipts and payments. Our role will be confined to taking care of lending.  We can focus on more profitable avenues, No Jandhan accounts headache.

Negative side, we will loose our importance, no further recruitment, bargaining power of unions will come down, we may even see cost to company, variable pay etc.,  Common man will not be affected even if we go on strike for one month. It will be easy for the government to merge the banks.  No promotions because banks will stop opening new branches.  Stagnation in career for all young bankers. Biggest of all our CASA will come down drastically, and accordingly our profitability.

Now being private these payment banks may even work 24*7 with shift. Their employees will be mostly locals with a salary of 10 to 15k.  I expect that stand alone BC’s with an HHM ( Hand Held Machines ) will even work for 12 hours per day.  As per RBI guidelines, payment banks can render their services through their own branches, ATM’s, and Business Correspondents.

Now with all payment banks coming in and taking care of Cash Management, we can certainly hope for a 5 day week.  We are busy in our wage revision no union has opposed introducing payment and small banks which are going to take on us in a big way.  Imagine the situation where in the maximum limit of 1.00 lacs is removed our CASA  will go down drastically draining our profits.  We may get our 5 day banking, but think about our future, its bleak.  We are the strongest lot in the financial sector, many may not know the fact that the insurance  wage settlement is based on our bipartite.  Payment and small banks are going to weaken us. ( Public Sector Banks ).  Time to think,  hope unions will take care of this after the bipartite.

10 th Bipartite Arears Chart

https://bankconsultant.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/tenth-bipartite-arrears-chart.xls

Whether Working Hours Increased because of Saturday Holiday

Clarifications;
Whether working hours increased because of Saturday holiday?
No. How?
Working hours are 6.5 hours for full day& 4 hours for Saturday.
In a month you save 4x2=8 hours for holiday.
U work extra 2.5x2=5 hours for fully work.
Ur working hours is reduced in year
=(8-5)x12=36 hours.
In a year if 5th Saturday comes 4 times u work extra=2.5x4=10 hours.
Even then ur working hours are reduced by=36-10=26 hours in a year.
Hence it is a clever move by unions so that employees get clubbed holidays twice in a month, no increase in working hours and also avoided public/traders/customer opposition for 5days banking.
How is it?
*****************
When it will be implemented ?
After signing of full settlement IBA will send communication to RBI.
RBI in turn will issue notification.
Then only it will be implemented.
It will take another 3 to 4 months.
********************
What will be my new salary?
Distribution/loading of amount to various heads like PQP,FPP,HRA,CONVEY.MEDICAL AID are yet to be announced.
Hence trying to calculate at this stage is a futile exercise.
So many calculations,tables,figures are posted by various comrades.
It shows their curiosity only.
Just ignore all these charts.
**********************
Still topics like medical reimbursement/Med claim policy,lfc,leave,issues of pensioners are to be finalised.
Above all management issues/demand like transfer policy,early retirement,vigilance,action after retirement,variable pay/incentive etc. are to be finalised.
*******************
What about the settlement?
90% of comrades commented that it will be only 13.5% and is already match fixed.
Now it comes with 15% and 2 clubbed holidays in a month.
Thanks to all unions who pressured to change the figure 13.5.
It is not so good settlement to celebrate,
at the same time it is not so bad settlement to curse. O.K.

What we Aceived Till

IBA itself has stated through its Press Release dated 02-12-2014 that 11% increase in pay slip components is equal to 12.5% increase in total establishment costs which include superannuation benefits.

So, the present 15% hike achieved in pay slip components is equal to 17.045% hike in total establishment costs. Thus, the present hike is less than what was achieved in 9th BPS.

What wil be done Next

Tenth Bipartite

What will be done next ?

The next crucial task is decision about new DA slab rate. By now, you know that 60.15% DA will be merged with basic pay and then additional 2% on basic pay and DA as on March 2012 will be given.

Now, what...?

The DA Saga

There are assumptions going on that new DA slab rate will be reduced to 0.12 from 0.15 at present. However, as per calculation it may get reduced to 0.10; and 0.12 is just we can hope of. So new DA at 0.10 slab rate will be 33.3% whereas on 0.12 will be 39.96%.

But hold on. This is the case when DA system from tenth bipartite will be on old system.

Officers associations have something interesting in their demand list.

1. Instead of quarterly payment, there should be monthly payment of DA.

2. DA neutralisation should be 125%.

3. There should be mid review of the scales by merging Dearness Allowance payable at the end of 2 ½ years. To be specific the revision date is 01.11.2012 – up to 2 ½ years i.e., on 30th April 2015 the Dearness Allowance payable to be merged and paid as revised pay. The Principles adopted by the Pay Commission for the purpose of merger of DA and other allowances should be followed in case of Bank Employees.

Award associations have following demands :

1. D.A. to be paid based on CPI (2001=100) Index Series instead of CPI (1960=100) Series.

2. D.A. to be revised on monthly variation in Index.

3. D.A. to be revised on rise and fall of every point in the Index.

4. D.A. compensation to be 110% for Clerical Staff and 120% for Subordinate Staff. 2

We know that what we demanded and what we got. Let us hope that unions hold their ground more on rest of the talks.

So, let us see.

Revised Salary Chart @ 15%

Discussion held on 23.02.2015

Outcoming of CLC Meeting held 20.02.2015

RBI Employees Supports Bankers Strike

AIBEA wants FM to Intervene to Solve Wage Revision

‪#‎Bank‬ ‪#‎unions‬ want ‪#‎FM‬ Arun Jaitley to step in to resolve ‪#‎wage‬‪#‎revision‬ issues

Days ahead of a proposed ‪#‎strike‬ by ‪#‎PSU‬ ‪#‎banks‬' ‪#‎employee‬ unions, a top union leader today sought the intervention of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to resolve the over two-year-old wage hike issue.

Public sector bank employee unions have threatened to go on a nationwide four-day strike beginning February 25 over the wage hike issue.

C H Venkatachalam, General Secretary of All-India Bank Employees Association (‪#‎AIBEA‬), said Jaitley should intervene immediately to settle the long-pending issue.

The association is a major constituent of United Forum of Bank Unions (‪#‎UFBU‬) which has given the strike call.

"Jaitley's immediate intervention is necessary in view of the four-day strike (which coincides with ‪#‎Budget‬ presentation) and also the call for indefinite strike from March 16 in support of our demands," he told PTI over telephone.

"Wage revision in the banking industry is governed by bilateral agreement between the Indian Banks' Association (the management body) and the bank unions once in five years," Venkatachalam said.

The last wage pact expired in October 2012 and hence a wage revision for bank employees and officers is due from November 2012, he said.

‪#‎IBA‬ had first bettered its earlier offer of 11 per cent wage hike to 12.5 per cent and then again to 13 per cent.

The unions, however, are demanding 19 per cent increase in wages.

Earlier, unions had deferred one-day strike scheduled for January 7 as IBA improved the wage hike offer to 12.5 per cent from 11 per cent earlier.

Following this, unions also deferred the proposed four-day strike from January 21 after the management of banks (IBA) assured that wage-related issues will be resolved by early February.

There are 27 government-owned banks in India with a combined employee strength of about 8 lakh. These lenders have around 50,000 branches across the country.

1 Rupee Note Back on Circulation

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said that it will soon put in circulation of currency notes in one rupee (Re 1) denomination. The notes will be printed by the Government of India.  The government had discontinued priting Re 1 notes in November 1994 due to higher printing costs.  

The RBI Act confers upon the right to the central bank to issue all notes, except Re 1. Such notes are issued by the government and bears the signature of finance secretary. All other denomination notes are  signed by the governor of RBI.The central bank has been gradually withdrawing lower denomination currency noted as the perceived benefit is lesser than the cost of printing such notes. Banking industry experts has termed the move to re-start printing of notes as more of symbolic as Re 1 coins are expected to be more in circulation.

As per the RBI Annual Report for 2013-14, there were 38424 million pieces of Re 1 coins in circulation (March 2014) and had seen a 7.07 per cent growth in its volumes compared to March 2013

Settlement Talks will be concluded this 20.02.2015 ???

Strike Notice By All unions

To The Chairman,
Indian Banks’ Association,
World Trade Centre, 
Cuffe Parade,
Mumbai.

Sir,In accordance with the provisions contained in sub-section (1) of Section 22 of the I.D. Act – 1947, we hereby give you notice that the members of all the constituent unions of United Forum of Bank Unions ( AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, INBOC, NOBW, NOBO)propose to go on

 (i) Four days’ Strike from the 25th February 2015 to 28th February 2015;and
(ii) Indefinite Strike from 16th March 2015 onwards.

Demanding:
1. IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT OF WAGE REVISION;
2. IMMEDIATE RESOLUTION OF OTHER RELATED ISSUES

The details of the programme and the Statement of the case are furnished herein. 
Sd/-(M.V. MURALI)CONVENOR

Encl. :
1. Details of Agitational Programme
2. Statement of the Case
Copy to1.
Chief Labour Commissioner (Central),
New Delhi2.
CMDs/MDs/CEOs of All Banks 

ALL INDIA BANK STRIKE PROGRAMMES:

9th February 2015 Centralised Demonstrations at all centres
13th February 2015 Centralised Demonstrations at all centres
20th February 2015 Badge Wearing & Demonstrations
23rd February 2015 Press Meet in all State capitals
24th February 2015 Centralised Demonstrations at all centres
25th to 28th February 2015 FOUR DAYS’ ALL INDIA BANK STRIKE
16th March onwards INDEFINITE STRIKE
Other Action Programmes in the interregnum between 1st March 2015 and 15th March 2015

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

 1. DEMANDING IMMEDIATE WAGE REVISION SETTLEMENT:

Wages and service conditions in the banking sector are governed by the industry-level bipartite settlements signed between the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the workmen unions and officers’ associations operating in the banking industry. All the banks which have given mandate to IBA to negotiate on behalf of them are parties to the settlements. United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), representing five workmen unions and four officers’ associations, is currently negotiating with IBA for revision of wages to bank workmen/officers.

The wage revision for bank employees is due from 01.11.2012 subsequent to the expiry of the last Bipartite Settlement on 31.10.2012. The common charter of demands, separately for workmen and officers, were submitted by UFBU to IBA on 30.10.2012 i.e., before the expiry of last bipartite settlement.UFBU has been requesting, since the start of negotiations, for a time-bound approach to hold the negotiations on its demands and for conclusion of wage settlement within a reasonable time. But the IBA has inordinately delayed the negotiation process and there is no significant progress in the wage negotiations despite a lapse of nearly two years’ time. 

IBA has been adamant in its offer of increase since beginning quoting the reason of non-affordability of banks and even brought stalemate in negotiations by sticking to its offer of 11% in pay slip components for nearly a year. With the intervention of CLC (C) in the last conciliation held on 5th January 2015, the negotiations were held by IBA with UFBU on 6th and 7th January 2015 and IBA increased its offer from 11% to 12.5% in pay slip components, with an assurance to have further flexibility, while UFBU reduced its demand from 23% to 19.5%. 

It will not be out of place to mention here that UFBU put on hold its four days’ strike from 21st to 24th January 2015 in the background of an assurance given by IBA towards that they would further pursue the matter with Government and deliberate in the Managing Committee Meeting of IBA to be held on the 31st January 2015 with all sincerity and hold discussions with us in the first week of February 2015 to improve the offer further to reach finality at the earliest.But, much to our dismay, IBA has backtracked from its assurance and once again with its slogan of non-affordability of banks, offered a paltry increase of 0.5% over the earlier increase offer of 12.5%, which is considered by UFBU as inadequate and not satisfactory.

Hence, once again UFBU has been pushed to the path of agitation. With utmost patience, for the last two years, UFBU has been making its best efforts to settle the demands amicably, whereas the flexibility shown by UFBU is not at all being reciprocated by IBA. 

We also submit that IBA is not giving any cognizance to the difficulties that are faced by the employees on account of high rate of inflation, which has eroded the salaries of the employees to a great extent and the wage increases considered in other similar Public Sector undertakings despite their low profits.

Further, bank employees, workmen and officers, have been performing well despite severe stress due to substantial increase in workload in the banks on account of opening of many branches under Financial Inclusion and so on despite inadequate staff strength. Bank employees never lagged behind in the successful implementation of all Government sponsored programmes/schemes, including the recently implemented Prime Minister’s Jan DhanYojna. However, the bank employees are not being paid adequately. 

HENCE, THIS DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT OF WAGE REVISION.

2. IMMEDIATE RESOLUTION OF OTHER RELATED ISSUES:

The common charter of demands, separately for workmen and officers, were submitted by UFBU to IBA on 30.10.2012 i.e., before the expiry of last bipartite settlement. Several issues relating to workmen and officers other than the wage increase were also listed in the common charter of demands and submitted to IBA are yet to be resolved. The prominent issues such as 5-day banking, Regulated working hours to officers, Improvements in Pension Scheme, Improvements in other perquisites and allowances, etc. are yet to be resolved and simultaneous resolution of all those issues listed in the common charter of demands is also essential for expeditious settlement on wages and service conditions.HENCE, THIS DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE RESOLUTION OF OTHER RELATED ISSUES.

Name of UFBU Unions & Their Representatives

NAME OF UNIONS :

UNITED FORUM OF BANK UNIONS (U.F.B.U.)

ALL INDIA BANK EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION (AIBEA)
ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ CONFEDERATION (AIBOC)
NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF BANK EMPLOYEES (NCBE)
ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION (AIBOA)
BANK EMPLOYEES FEDERATION OF INDIA (BEFI)
INDIAN NATIONAL BANK EMPLOYEES FEDERATION (INBEF)
INDIAN NATIONAL BANK OFFICERS CONGRESS (INBOC)
NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF BANK WORKERS (NOBW)
NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF BANK OFFICERS (NOBO)

NAMES OF ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES

1. Shri. M.V. Murali, Convenor, UFBU & General Secretary, NCBE
2. Shri. C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA 
3. Shri. Harvinder Singh, General Secretary, AIBOC
4. Shri. S. Nagarajan, General Secretary, AIBOA
5. Shri. Pradeep Biswas, General Secretary, BEFI
6. Shri. SubhashSawant, General Secretary, INBEF
7. Shri. K.K. Nair, Chairman, UFBU & General Secretary, INBOC
8. Shri Mohan Kumtakar, General Secretary, NOBW
9. Shri. SU. Deshpande, General Secretary, NOBO
Dated this day of 5th February, 2015

Telgana State Govt. Salary & Bankers Salary

43% Fitment was given to the state govt employees of telangana 1. Where an attender would get no less that 25,000/- a month and his salary was hiked by 5,000/- per month where as a clerk in the bank is drawing a mere salary of 17,000/- per month. 2. the basic of clerical cadre in bank is 8000/- where in this case we can the new basic as 15,460/- for a state govt employee 

Save Energy... Bankers 5 day Banking

Talks between IBA & UFBU on 03.02.2015

IBA says that Negotiations had failed and blamed the Unions for their adamant stand

The unions say IBA’s offer is unacceptable and they will go on a four-day strike starting 25 FebruaryMumbai: The latest round of wage negotiation between the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and bank unions failed on Tuesday, which will likely prompt employee unrest in banks over the coming weeks. Bank unions are adamant on a wage hike of 19.5% while the IBA raised its offer only by half a percentage point to 13%. The unions said the offer was unacceptable and that they would go on a four-day strike starting 25 February, bank union representativesand IBA officials said.The Union government will announce its budget for fiscal 2015-16 on 28 February, the final day of the threatened four-day strike.

If even after the strike a wage agreement is not reached, the unions have threatened to go on an indefinite strike starting on 16 March.Bank wages are revised every five years through bipartite negotiations between the unions and the banks.

“The IBA told us we will offer you 0.5% more, provided you bring down your demand,” said Vishwas Utagi, convenor, Maharashtra, for the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organization of nine such unions. More than 1 million employees of public sector, private and even foreign banks are members of the unions.

“IBA did not want to discuss at all, but said we need to bring down our demand to get the 0.5% hike. Not only the hike is paltry, any conditional offer is unacceptable to us,” Utagi said, adding that this time the strikes will be much more intense as the unions had cancelled previous strikes hoping IBA wanted to conclude the negotiations quickly.

An official with the IBA confirmed that negotiations had failed and blamed the unions for their adamant stand.“We offered them 13%, provided they bring down their demand to 17.5%, but they were very inflexible,” said an IBA official who did not wish to be named. While the IBA started the negotiation process with a pay hike proposal of 5%, unions demanded 25%. Negotiations largely stalled in 2014, and employees stayed off work several times. In 2010, the last time wages were settled, the hike was 17.5%.

The last hike, however, included pension and gratuity, while this time the hike is being calculated only on the pay slip component. Including pension and gratuity, the hike proposed now is above 12.5%. In absolute amount, the proposed hike is bigger. Excluding pension, the hike works out to Rs.3,938 crore for the banking industry. Including pension, the proposal will cost Rs.7,000-7,500 crore.Including pension, the hike last time worked out to Rs.4,816 crore for public sector banks. Excluding pension and gratuity, the hike on the pay slip component was Rs.2,980 crore.

113 Applications Received for Payment & Small Banks

Reserve Bank gets 41 applications for ‪#‎payment‬ ‪#‎banks‬, 72 for ‪#‎small‬ banks

The Reserve Bank of India (‪#‎RBI‬) has received at least 113 applications for setting up small and payments banks, it said on Tuesday.The deadline to submit applications for setting up niche banks was Monday. It had been extended from the earlier deadline of January 16.In its bi-monthly monetary policy statement, the RBI said: "seventy two applications for small ‪#‎finance‬ banks and 41 applications for payments banks were received up to the deadline for submission yesterday. This number excludes applications that might have been received at other venues.

"These applications are now going to be scrutinised and evaluated by the External Advisory Committee (‪#‎EAC‬).The EAC for small banks will be chaired by Usha Thorat, former deputy governor, RBI. Nachiket Mor, director, Central Board, RBI, will chair the committee for payments banks.Several corporate giants such as ‪#‎Reliance‬Industries, ‪#‎Bharti‬ ‪#‎Airtel‬, ‪#‎Aditya‬ ‪#‎Birla‬Group, ‪#‎Future‬ Group, ‪#‎Vodafone‬ and others are in the race to get a licence for payments banks. Lenders such as ‪#‎ICICI‬ Bank, ‪#‎Kotak‬ ‪#‎Mahindra‬ Bank and ‪#‎Axis‬ Bank have expressed an interest to partner with applicants for payments banks.Payments banks can accept deposits of up to Rs 1 lakh, offer current and savings account deposits, issue debit cards and provide internet banking. They are not allowed to lend or issue credit cards. Other players that have applied for payments banks include ‪#‎Paytm‬, ‪#‎Oxigen‬, ‪#‎Fino‬ ‪#‎PayTech‬ and ‪#‎ItzCash‬.

Small finance banks - like commercial lenders - accept deposits from and lend to unserved and under-served sections.The maximum loan size and investment limit exposure to single and group obligors cannot be more than 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its capital funds, respectively. Also, at least 50 per cent of their loan portfolio has to include loans and advances of up to Rs 25 lakh.After the draft guidelines for small finance banks came out, the enthusiasm for it was limited. However, in the final guidelines, RBI had removed the restrictions on the area of operations, thus leading to a greater interest."The interest for small banks went up after RBI removed the clause for geographical restriction.

Not many players wanted to apply at that time if the operations were going to be limited only to a certain cluster," said Shinjini Kumar, leader, banking and capital markets, ‪#‎PricewaterhouseCoopers‬ ‪#‎India‬.RBI had also said small banks can convert themselves into universal banks, though the transition would not be automatic and will depend on the regulator's approval.‪

#‎SKS‬ ‪#‎Microfinance‬, ‪#‎DHFL‬, ‪#‎Capital‬ Area Local Bank, ‪#‎Coastal‬ Local Area Bank,   and others have applied to open small banks. Several other microfinance companies, some non-banking financial companies, local area banks and individuals have also applied for small finance bank licence.

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