Friday, November 7, 2008

AIBEA CIRCULAR - 7.11.2008

Dear Comrades,

Meeting with IBA
Further to our recent 2 days All India Strike action, a round of discussions between IBA and UFBU was held today in Mumbai.
UFBU Meeting:
Preceding this meeting with IBA, a meeting of the UFBU was held in the AIBEA office in Mumbai. The meeting was presided over by Com. V. Eswaran, President, AIBOC.
The meeting congratulated all the employees and officers who participated in the 2 days strike and made it a grand success.
The meeting while noting that the delay in resolution of our important issues like pension option, compassionate appointment scheme, wage revision, etc. is causing anxiety to the rank and file membership, decided that the same should be expeditiously settled and it was further decided to prevail upon the IBA in this regard during the talks with them.
Discussions with IBA:
In the discussions with the IBA, the IBA team was led by Mr. M.V. Nair (CMD, Union Bank of India), Chairman of the Negotiating Committee while UFBU was represented by all our constituent unions.

1. Wage Revision:
After mutual discussions it was agreed that a meeting of the Core Committee would be held by end of November, 2008 in which our demands would be gone into with further details, calculations and working out the cost implications, construction Pay scales based on our demand for merger of D.A. at 3028 points, etc. Thereafter another round of meeting will be held with the Negotiating Committee by the middle of next month.
2. Pension Option:
The Report of the common panel of Actuaries has since been received. As per their estimation and calculations based on the common parameters of assumptions agreed upon between IBA and UFBU, the cost of pension for the remaining employees who are in PF as on 31-3-2008 comes to around Rs.17,000 crores and if their PF balance (Management's contribution) is adjusted, the net deficit or liability would work out to Rs. 6,000 crores. The IBA wanted some time to study the Report before taking up the same for discussions with the UFBU. Since we also need to examine and understand the Report, it was mutually decided that further discussions on this issue would be held during the next round of discussions with the Negotiating Committee.
3. Compassionate Appointments Scheme:
In the last meeting held on 2-9-2008, besides reiterating our detailed suggestions already submitted to the IBA, we had further given our views on the basis for defining penury conditions, etc. In today's meeting, the IBA while agreeing with some of our suggestions on redefining the Assets and Liabilities, on the need for extra consideration if the widow of the deceased employee had school going children, marriageable daughters, ailing dependent parents-in-law, to give compassionate appointments in cases of death of an employee on duty, death due to terminal disease, etc., the IBA informed that further relaxation in the scheme is not acceptable to them. After mutual discussions, it was agreed that our suggestions and concerns would be further addressed and reviewed by them and thereafter the same would be taken up for discussions to finalise a mutually acceptable formula to be recommended to the Government.
4. Outsourcing:
IBA made a presentation on outsourcing to explain the issues involved and appealed to the unions to arrive at an amicable solution having regard to the needs of the Banks and emerging requirements in the Banking Industry. The IBA informed that they will take into account the concerns of the unions and gave the assurance that there would be no retrenchment of jobs or reduction in employment opportunities. We have informed that the matter needs further discussions and can be taken up in due course.
5. Consolidation & Mergers:
The IBA desired to know the views of the unions in regard to our opposition to the issue of merger and consolidation of Public Sector Banks as according to them the same would help in strengthening the Public Sector Banks in their ability to face competition. We have informed them that we would deal with this issue in subsequent meetings.
With greetings,
Yours comradely,

(C.H. VENKATACHALAM)
CONVENER

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