Confusion & Consolidation

Amid a hurriedly announced mega bank merger plan that has made bold promises, employees’ struggle for wage settlement remains unresolved

- B Sivaraman

September 17, 2019, was no ordinary day for India’s bank employees. All bank employees were waiting with bated breath for the outcome of the negotiations on eleventh bipartite wage settlement, plus an additional charter of demands between Indian Banks Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a forum of nine bank unions. Expectations were running high that a settlement would be reached on that day as the differences in the wage talks had considerably narrowed down with UFBU making a climbdown from 20 per cent wage hike to 15 per cent and IBA increasing its initial offer of 8 per cent to 10 per cent. It was widely hoped that the two sides would reach a deal at the midpoint of 15 per cent. But no deal was reached. The IBA increased its offer to 12 per cent but the UFBU rejected it saying that they would not settle at anything below 15 per cent hike.

Meanwhile, four bank officers’ associations – All-India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All-India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO) – had called for an all-India bank strike on September 26 and 27 to protest the merger of public sector banks and demanding expeditious settlement of wages and other issues. This is an intriguing development. Though these four officers’ associations are also members of the UFBU, they had separately given a call for this two-day strike against the merger. They have also warned of an indefinite strike in the second week of November if no settlement had been reached by the second week of November. The main fighting unions within UFBU like AIBEA and BEFI have not joined this strike move. Why?