12th BPS Expected Salary Calculator For Bank Employees – The 12thBipartite Wage Settlement is due on 1st Nov 2022 for all the employees of Public Sector Banks. The Salary revision for the government bank officers & other employees like Clerks, Sub staffs etc are revised as per bipartite settlement through IBA. Based on discussion and agreement with IBA on various issues with Banker’s Union like UFBU the salary are revised.
The salary calculation for 12th BPS is designed on the expected calculation as per previous settlement and expectation through Charter of Demands. The merger of DA with Basic Pay has been taken only for calculative purposes.
No. 12/7/2023-JCA
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
(Department of Personnel & Training)
Establishment JCA Section
North Block, New Delhi
Dated: 24. August, 2023
Office Memorandum
Subject: Closing of Central Government Offices located in Delhi from 08-09-2023 to 10-09-2023 on the occasion of G-20 Summit in Delhi.
The undersigned is directed to say that the G-20 Summit will be held in Delhi on 9-10 September, 2023. The Summit will be attended by a number of Heads of States, Heads of Government including EU, invitee guest countries and Heads of International Organizations.
2. Recognizing the magnitude of this event and the substantial logistical arrangements involved, it has been decided to keep the Central Government Offices located in Delhi closed from 08-09-2023 to 10-09-2023 on the occasion of G-20 summit to be held in Delhi
3. This may be brought to the notice of all concerned.
(Parveen Jargar)
Deputy Secretary to the Government of India
To
Under the new guidelines, penalties for non-compliance with the terms and conditions of a loan contract will be treated as “penal charges” and not as “penal interest”. This means that penalties cannot be added to the interest rate charged on the loan.
There will also be no capitalization of penal charges, which means that no further interest will be charged on the penalties. However, this does not affect the normal procedures for compounding interest in the loan account.
The RBI has also asked banks not to introduce any additional component to the interest rate and to ensure compliance with the new guidelines. Banks will need to formulate a board-approved policy on penal charges or similar charges on loans.
The new guidelines are applicable to all commercial banks, small finance banks (except payment banks), NBFCs including housing finance companies, and other financial institutions such as SIDBI and EXIM banks.
The RBI has taken these steps to ensure that penal charges are used as a tool to inculcate a sense of credit discipline and not as a revenue enhancement measure. The new norms will also help to improve transparency and fairness in the way that penal charges are levied.
GTIL, a group company of Global Group Enterprises promoted by Manoj Tirodkar, is engaged in the business of building and operating telecom infrastructure. It owns 27,729 telecom towers across the country.
The company had availed credit facilities from 19 banks since 2004 and in 2011 the company had outstanding dues of ₹ 11,263 crore.
As the company failed to pay dues, it was referred to Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) in 2011. As CDR failed, banks opted Strategic Debt Restructuring in 2016, debt of 7,200 crore was converted into equity shares, with 4,063 crore as outstanding dues to be paid by the company to the banks.
A forensic audit in 2018 by the banks has revealed substantial amount of funds given by GTIL to vendors was written off and invested in M/s European Projects and Aviation Ltd or M/s Chennai Network Infrastructure Ltd, a sister concern of GTIL.
In June 2018, GTIL had an outstanding dues with 19 banks to the tune of ₹ 4,063 crore.
The CBI in 2022 initiated a preliminary enquiry on the complaint that the bank officials colluded with the company and sold the aforesaid debt of ₹ 4,063 crore to M/s Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company (EARC) at a lesser price causing huge loss the banks.
According to the investigation report accessed by NDTV, Canara bank had dissented to the proposal of assignment of debt to EARC for just ₹ 2,354 crore citing “total depreciated value of the plant and equipment of GTIL was 7,945 crore and GTIL was having 27,729 telecom towers valued 10,330 crore”, which was way higher than the offer of EARC.
“Despite the dissent of Canara Bank and some other members of the consortium, 79.3 % of the outstanding dues amounting to ₹ 3,224 crore were assigned to EARC by 13 banks for a consideration of 1,867 crore causing huge wrongful loss to the banks”, states CBI’s investigation report.
The CBI’s investigation has further revealed “at the time of assignment of debt to EARC in 2018, the banks were holding 64.97 % equity of GTL comprising 1212 Crore shares. The promoters were holding 19.52 % of equity. Despite that the banks did not choose to sell their equity in block deal or adopt the procedure under SARFAESI act to secure their loan from the collateral securities, the plant and machinery having a value of ₹ 7,945 crore”.
Sources said, as the preliminary enquiry revealed criminal misconduct by the company and officials of banks, a full-fledged criminal investigation has been initiated and a FIR has been registered.
The CBI has charged the company and unknown officials of 13 banks for allegedly “conspiring to cheat and cause wrongful loss to banks”.
Sources said, the agency also conducted searches at the premises of GTIL in Mumbai, including the residences of the executives of the company.
The promissory clause printed on the banknotes i.e., “I promise to pay the bearer the sum of Rupees …” followed by the RBI governor’s signature, denotes the obligation on the part of the issuer of the note towards the holder of the bank note.
As per Section 26 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Bank is liable to pay the value of the banknote. This is payable on demand by RBI, being the issuer.
Although the Reserve Bank of India promises to pay the value mentioned in the notes, today’s paper currencies have no inherent value in them. The real value of today’s Rs.500 note is not the same after 10 years, because of inflation. It means the note is less worth than its value after 10 years by way of tangible goods or commodities. So, we understand that the note in itself is not 500 rupees; it is only a ‘promise’ that this sum will be paid to its possessor.
Background:
In ancient times precious metals like Gold and Silver acted as the currency. This is why we see that the ancient coins were made of precious metals. And there was no need for anybody to make a promise about the value of a Gold coin because the coin in itself contained precious Gold, unlike today’s paper currency.
When paper currency began to supplement coins in Britain some 300 years ago, each promissory note was backed by the country’s gold reserve. But over the period, countries went off the gold standard and started issuing notes under a minimum reserve system based on the demand for the notes from the public.
The unlimited notes and coins issued under the minimum reserve system are called Fiat money. The cost of issuing fiat currencies is paltry compared to their face value. Since the fiat currencies are issued and underwritten by the concerned government which is in principle, answerable to its citizen get their value by dint of regulation or law. One danger of fiat money is that governments can print too much of it, resulting in hyperinflation and the currency loses its value. The African nation of Zimbabwe provided an example of the worst-case scenario of fiat money in the early 2000s. In response to serious economic problems, the country’s central bank began to print money at a staggering pace; resulting in hyperinflation and the currency lost 99.9% of its value during that time.
So, the value of paper money is largely based on the public’s faith in the currency’s issuer, which is normally that country’s government or central bank. The note is rather, worth the confidence we have, in the paper that bears its denomination.
Original Article published in Banking School Blog
ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS' CONFEDERATION [AIBOC] ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION [AIBOA] INDIAN
NATIONAL BANK OFFICERS' CONGRESS [INBOC] NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF BANK OFFICERS [NOBO]
TO
INDIAN BANKS' ASSOCIATION, MUMBAI ON 21st OCTOBER 2022
The 12th Bipartite wage revision negotiation & 9th Joint note is due from
1st November 2022. In order to present our Charter of Demand in time, AIBOC as
early in September 2021 formed a committee to prepare the Charter of Demand
where your General Secretary was the chairman of the committee. The committee
with guidance of the then GS of AIBOC Com. Soumya Dutta prepared the Charter which
was presented to the EC of AIBOC. After thorough discussions it was approved with changes suggested for fur
ther deliberations with other 3
Officers Organizations who are part of UFBU in order to create a common Charter
of Demand for the officers.
The committee while preparing the charter of demand had
taken into consideration the calcu lation of minimum wages formula, maintaining parity on wages
with different Govt. employees,
RBI ,UC etc., the risk & responsibility of officers in banking sector as also the expectation and aspirations of officers.
We held one round of
discussions with other 3 Officers
Organizations and finally created a common Charter of Demand and it was
presented to the IBA at IBA Office, Mumbai on 21.10.2022.
We have placed the residual
issues of last settlement as the first item on Charter of Demand and shall be insisting on
discussion on them first. There are
other VI parts covering
Salary & Allow
ances, Perquisites, welfare & leave
rules, issues concerning lady officers, superannuation, non monetary issues,
general bilateral relationship besides 6 annexure covering Disciplinary & Vigi lance, note on 5 Day week,
regulated working hours, Note of LFC, Note of outsourcing & judgment on
accumulation of leave.
We have urged IBA to continue negotiation with short
intervals so as to reach
a settlement at the earliest.
We kept our members
informed of the day to day developments in this regard. We assure our members that AIBOC shall take all steps to clinch a decent wage revision and members should remain in readiness to support & participate in any call given by the organization.
The complete Charter of Demand is
forwarded herewith and I request the members to go through
the Charter of Demand to better understand the rationale behind our demands.
With regards,
Dilip Saha
General Secretary
Date: 21.10.2022
Place: Mumbai
Regd. Office: 306, Kirti Mahal,
19, Rajendra Place, New Delhi - 110008
|
CHAPTERS |
Page No. |
||
|
Residual Issues |
|
9 |
|
|
Introduction to Charter of Demands |
13 |
||
|
Part : I |
Salary Revision and Allowances |
18 |
|
|
Part : II |
Perquisites, allowances, welfare facilities viz., leave
rules, the encashment, the LFC/LTC, Medical
facilities etc., |
30 |
|
|
Part : Ill |
The issues concerning Lady Officers. |
34 |
|
|
Part : IV |
Superannuation Pension, Provident
Fund, Gratuity Etc., including all the
benefits that are to be extended to retirees in the Banking
Industry. |
38 |
|
|
Part : V |
Non monetary issues, comparable position in the Government
and its extension etc., issues such as the working hours, 5 day work week etc. |
40 |
|
|
Part : VI |
General Bilateral Relationship. |
44 |
|
|
|
1. |
Disciplinary and Vigilance Proceedings |
49 |
|
|
2. |
Note on Five Day
Work Week |
58 |
|
Annexure |
3. 4. |
Regulated working hours |
69 |
|
Note on LFC |
70 |
||
|
|
5. |
Note on outsourcing |
72 |
|
|
6. |
Judgement on accumulation of leave 82 |
74 |
ALL
INDIA BANK OFFICERS' CONFEDERATION ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION INDIAN NATIONAL BANK OFFICERS'
CONGRESS
NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF BANK OFFICERS
The Chairman
Indian Banks' Association Mumbai.
Dear Sir,
CHARTER OF DEMANDS
21.10.2022
In continuation of past practice and norm, we are submitting herewith the detailed charter for your consideration.
We would like the Indian Banks' Association to take into account the following:
1. Wage negotiation
has to be up to scale VIII after introduction of post of
Chief General Manager in major banks and the practice shall be based
on the Pillai Committee
recommendations which introduced 7 scales.
2. The residual issues must be settled at the outset
itself before we start
discussing the Charter of
Demands. The record
note signed during the last
settlement should be the basis for this.
3. The banking industry
has undergone demographic metamorphosis. Average
age of a banker is now
less than 40
who are
highly educated, capable of shouldering
enormous workload and responsibility. There is a felt need to provide better
emoluments, facilities
and
improved service and working conditions for their retention as well as to attract fresh
talent to carry forward the legacy. The multifaceted job profile
of officers in banks today require management to create a well defined and congenial working
condition matched with compensation that
is comparable with emoluments being
paid Govt. officials, RBI, LICI officials. In India, the banks implement a major part of fiscal and economic policy of the Govt. much beyond what is in practice in developed
countries. Thus, the onerous responsibility in fostering
growth and development of institutions which
in turn fuel economic
progress of the Nation, which has been vindicated during the Covid-19
pandemic has to be adequately compensated by substantial
enhancement of existing salary,
allowances and betterment of service
conditions.
4. Work life balance has to improve
with the advancement in technology. Hence, So, introduction
of five day work week and regulated working hours are to be considered as top priority.
5. A strict time frame should
be prepared for conclusion of the settlement and dates of all
subsequent meetings should be declared in every meeting.
6. In spite of clear provision in respective Acts passed by Parliament for appointment of non workmen employee Director in Nationalized Banks
and SBI, no such appointments have been made after 2015 by the appropriate
authority; thereby there is no representation of major
stake holders in any of the Boards of the banks. IBA should ensure legal
provisions are respected and positions
are filled forthwith.
We look
forward to
a historic
settlement which will
pave the way for the
development of the
Banking Industry and the
nation.
(Soumya Datta)
General Secretary
AIBOC
·"'-" \l'y'
rem Makker)
eral Secretary
INBOC
;
General Secretary
NOBO
BROAD SUMMARY OF CHARTER OF DEMANDS
1. Wage revIsIon should take into account risk,
responsibility, accountability and transferability of officers. Improved
Basic Pay commensurate with Central Government Officers, RBI officers & LICI Officers.
2. The base date for calculation
of quantum hike of
ensuing settlement to be based on establishment expenditure as on 30.09.2022 as against present practice of 31st March of the year of wage revision due.
3. Revision of improvement in pay scales by merger of DA up to 01.08.2022.
4. Special Allowance,
with DA as on 31.10.2022,
to be merged with
the existing Basic Pay.
5. Revised DA formula
with provision for automatic merger
with Basic Pay (as that of
Central
Government) and improvement in Compensation against
price rise.
6. All existing Stagnation Increments up to Scale V should be
converted to regular increment after one
year from
reaching maximum of the respective present scales. This shall also remove
present anomaly in fitment
on promotion.
7. Date of sanction
of annual increments should be on 1st January
and 1st July every year.
8. The present embargo
in regard to the sanction
of stagnation increment, automatic movement, increment
in next higher scale and PQP in respect of those officers who have refused
/ took reversion / opted out of promotion should be removed.
The present policy of enforcing
such embargo is against the natural
justice and tantamount to imposition
of major penalty.
9. Upward revision of HRA commensurate with market rent.
10. Self Lease for officers to be introduced.
11. Substantial increase of CCA & Location allowance (non CCA centres) for all.
12. Learning Allowance to be enhanced substantially.
13. Closing allowance to be enhanced
and paid every quarter in view of the enhanced workload performed by officers
every quarter end as it is an obligatory requirement to declare audited
quarterly results.
14. Improvement of lumpsum
amount as compensation on transfer and two months'
salary to compensate
incidental expenses on transfer.
15. Improvement of lumpsum amount on mid-academic
transfer equivalent to three month's gross salary to meet the education expenses
of children on account of transfer.
16.
Review and
rationalization of halting/boarding/travelling expenses/Hill
area allowance etc.
17. Introduction of incentive for rural and other sensitive/difficult areas.
18. Improvement in
special area allowance and special compensatory allowance for N.E, Jammu, Kashmir, Himachal, Leh, Ladhakh, Uttarakhand and red
corridor / disturbed areas.
19. Improvement in Leave Fare Concession and monetization
of LFC - The entitlement of mode of travel should
be made as air travel
to all the officers and restoration of LFC
abroad within domestic entitlement.
20. Special Provision for Women Employees with regards to placement and postings,
provision of creche facility as per
Govt. guidelines/ flexi timings /work from home, child care leave
with salary as applicable in Central
Government etc.
21. Introduction of 5 day work week.
22. Working hours for officers should be defined and regulated, in terms of ILO Norms.
23. The income criteria for dependents to be substantially increased.
24.
The Provident Fund should be at the rate of 12% of the total salary and allowances.
25. The Gratuity
should be paid at the rate of
one month salary and allowance without any ceiling. Gratuity as per
regulation should be improved.
26. Roll back to the existing pension scheme to all those who are in NPS.
27. Pension to be extended to Pension optees on resignation also.
28. Updation of Pension
in line of Central Govt.
and the Principle of One Rank One Pension.
29. Encashment of entire leave at credit should be permitted on resignation.
30.
Improvement in all leaves facilities/introduction of the concept of leave Bank etc.
31. Roll back of IBA Medical Insurance for serving officers and
retirees and
implementing the provision of the
policy at individual Bank level.
32. Uniformity of
loans and advances to officers by
adoption of best of policies. The
Road Tax on vehicles should be paid
by the Banks on inter-state transfers.
33. Review of Disciplinary Rules Procedure.
Allowing personal hearing of charge sheeted
officer in case of major penalty proceedings accompanied
by Defense representative.
34. Classification of lapses into major and minor penalty.
35.
Keeping in view the principle of Ex Post Facto in our legal framework,
Clarification be issued to Banks that any alleged
lapse committed by an employee
while working in the
capacity as workmen, but alleged lapse
detected when employee is an officer, he should be tried under bipartite rules and not under officers
D & A regulations.
36. Full legal expenses to be
borne by banks on legal cases against any officer both
serving and retired for all cases related to banking work except charges of
fraud perpetuated by the officer.
37. Present ceiling of 3% of net
profit for welfare to be increased
to 5% of operating profit without any
ceiling for staff welfare
activities.
38. Categorization of Branches to be done uniformly for all Banks by IBA & RBI.
39. Massive recruitment of officers, clerical, subordinate staff and security guards required.
40.
Appointment of compassionate grounds to be completed within six months period.
ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS' CONFEDERATION
[AIBOC] ALL
INDIA BANK OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION [AIBOA] INDIAN NATIONAL BANK OFFICERS' CONGRESS
[INBOC] NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF BANK OFFICERS
[NOBO]
Before we go into the new Charter of Demands we have to first
settle the residual
issues which are yet to be resolved
as part of the 8th Joint Note.
Some of the major residual
issues of 8th Joint
Record note of 11.11.2020 include Introduction of 5 Day work week, Interpretation of additional stagnation increments,
LFC/ LTC clarifications, Pension updation,
accountability, DA regulations etc. and minutes dated 4th Jan
2021.
The improvements sought in the Pension scheme in the areas
like updation and upgradation of the Pension,
the rationalization of Dearness Allowance
etc., need to be implemented in the banking industry
as our pension scheme amply speaks of being in the lines of RBI pension
scheme.
Constitutional Provisions and Judicial Position
as per Article 366(17) of the Constitution defines pension as: "pension means a pension, whether contributory or not,
of any kind whatsoever payable to or in
respect of any person, and includes
retired pay so payable, a gratuity so payable and any sum or sums so payable by way of the return, with or without
interest thereon or any other
addition thereto, of subscriptions to a provident
fund;"
Pension has been the subject
matter of a number of landmark judgements by the Supreme Court of India in which its nature, obligations of the government
thereon and the recognition of distinctiveness in categories of pensions and pensioners has been settled. In its judgment in
D.S. Nakara and others Vs Union of India [AIR 1983 SC 130] the Supreme Court held that a
pension scheme consistent with available resources must
provide that a pensioner would be able to live free from
want, with decency, independence and self respect and standard equivalent at pre-retirement level. It held that
pension is not an ex-gratia payment but payment
for past
services rendered.
At the same time
in Indian Ex-Services League & Others Vs Union of India & Others [(1991)
2 SSC 104] the Supreme
Court held that the decision in the Nakara case has to be read as one of a limited application and its ambit cannot be enlarged to
cover all claims made by the pension retirees or a demand for an identical
amount of pension to every retiree from the same rank irrespective of the date of retirement,
even though the reckonable emoluments
for computation of their pension
be different. In the judgement in Vasant Gangaramsachandan Vs
State of Maharashtra & Others [(1996) 10 SSC 148] Supreme
Court reiterated that pension is not a bounty of the State. It is earned by the employee for service rendered to fall back upon after retirement. It is attached
to the office and it cannot be arbitrarily denied.
In the case of petitioners
who were retired Railway employees, covered by or who opted for the Railway
Contribution Fund Pension Scheme, the Supreme Court in
Krishna Kumar Vs Union of India and Others [(1990) 4 SSC 207] averred that it was never held that both the pension retirees and PF retirees formed a homogenous class and that any
further classification Report of the Seventh
CPC 382 Index among them (viz., pension retirees and PF retirees) would be violative of Article 14. Under
the Pension Scheme, the government's obligation does not begin
until the employee retires but it begins
on his/her retirement and then continues till the death of the
employee. Thus, on the retirement of an employee, government's legal obligation
under the PF account ends while under the Pension Scheme it begins. The
rules governing the PF and its
contribution are entirely different
from the rules governing pension. An imaginary definition of obligation to include all the government retirees in a class
was not decided and could
not form the basis for any classification for this case.
The 7th Pay Commission sought
the views of the government in this regard.
The Department of Pension
and Pensioners Welfare stated that the VI CPC had recommended
calculation of Pension Report of the Seventh CPC recommended pension @ 50 percent of last pay or the average emoluments (for last 10 months)
whichever is more beneficial.
The Commission also recommended delinking of pension from qualifying service
of 33 years. Effectively the dispensation on pension has already
been liberalized by the VI CPC. Further the recommendations of this Commission in relation to pay of both the
civilian and defence forces personnel
will lead to a significant
increase in the pay drawn and therefore in the
'last pay drawn'/'reckonable
emoluments.' Therefore the
Commission does not recommend any further increase in the rate of pension and family pension
from the existing
levels. Quantum of Minimum Pension should Equal the Minimum Wage. In representations/depositions before the Commission it has been stated that the existing minimum
pension fixed at Rs.3,500 is low and it has been argued that minimum pension be fixed equal to minimum pay for sustenance.
The
Commission sought the views of the government in this regard. The Department of
Pension and Pensioners Welfare
stated that as per the orders issued
after V CPC, the
minimum pension in the government was Rs. 1,275.
The normal revised consolidated
pension of
a pre-2006 pensioner is 2.26 of the pre-revised basic pension. The revised minimum
pension of Rs. 3,500 is much
more than 2.26 time of the pre-revised pension of Rs. 1,275. Further the recommendations of this Commission in relation to pay of personnel will lead to a significant increase in the minimum pay from the existing Rs.7,000 per month to Rs.18,000 per month. This, based on the computation of pension, will
raise minimum pension from the existing Rs.3,500 to Rs.9,000. The minimum pension based on the recommendations of
this Commission will increase
by 2.57
times over the existing level.
It is pertinent to note that many
General Managers of
banks retired in earlier years are drawing less pension than pension drawn
by clerical employee retiring now. Hence
we demand revision in pension & family pension so that the pensioners
& family pensioners can live a decent life with dignity.
Pension scheme should be extended to all those who have been denied
earlier on the basis of the misinterpretation of the
understandings reached with IBA in particular those who retired under voluntary retirement scheme as per the service regulations / resigned after completing 20 years.
Full Pension Eligibility Period
to be made 20 years: The full pension
eligibility period in Central Government and RBI / NABARD are now revised to 20 years. However in Banks, full pension
eligibility period continues to be 33 years. Hence,
the relevant clauses
in Pension Regulations are to be amended
to make full pension
eligibility after a period to be 20 years of service.
Pension should be revised for retirees in all Banks including SBI along with wage revision as done for retirees of central
government.
The officers who were in service of the
bank between 01.11.1993 and 26.01.1996 in case of officers in Nationalised Bank & Associates of State Bank of India have to be covered
under the pension regulations.
Provision of additional service as per the Pension Regulations to the extent
of 5 years should be extended to each and every
retirees in the banking industry.
Those having relaxation of age at the time of recruitment
on account of disability etc., are also
to be extended additional
period of 5 years to his/ her service
qualifying for pension.
Also, for Ex-servicemen their past services rendered in the Armed
Force
should be added to his
/ her service for qualifying for pension.
Short Service Commissioned Officers are not drawing
any pension for their services
rendered in Military. They are paid gratuity at the time of release
from Military. Such Officers when they join Central Government and Organisations
like RBI/
NABARD are given the
option to remit the gratuity received
by them to the Employer
Bank / Organisation at the time of joining so that the period of service rendered
in Military is counted towards
eligibility of pension
in Bank.
However this provision
is not available to Short Service
Commissioned Officers joining Public
Sector Banks.
Hence we demand that Short Service Commissioned Officers joining PSB may
be allowed to remit the
gratuity received by them at the time of release from Military so that their
period of service in Military is counted towards eligibility period for pension in PSBs. For existing Short Service Commissioned Officers who are already
in the service of the PSBs, they may be given
a onetime option to return the gratuity
received at the time of release with simple interest@
5% from the date of receipt
of gratuity till date payment
to the Bank for availing
inclusion of Military Service Period toward pension eligibility.
The
Dearness Allowance
should be 100% as applicable to the serving officers which is being provided to the Central Govt.
retirees for pre 2002 pensioners. DR for pensioners' to be paid on a quarterly basis as in case of serving employees.
Full Pension:
If an officer dies in service at present the double of family pension is payable for 7 years
from death or up to 65
years of age the officer would have attained whichever
is earlier.
This was done when the retirement age was 58.
As the retirement age is 60 now, the
age limit is to be increased
to 67
for payment of full pension.
The Special Allowance at the time of retirement
should be included
in the pension eligibility for those who retired after 01.11.2012.
Considerable
progress was made during the last wage revision negotiations. An uniform
accountability policy was finalized and introduced with effect from 01.04.2022.
Similarly discussions took place on other
matters related to disciplinary and appeal rules. There is an increase in cyber
crime which has to be dealt
with in the D & A rules
clearly. Unfortunately
nothing was finalized at the last moment. We should finalise the accountability policy and discipline and appeal rules before we proceed to the new Charter of Demands.
The Charter of Demands
represents the hopes and aspirations of entire officers'
fraternity working in the Banking Industry
all over the country owing
allegiance to the 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). It is an
exhaustive exercised factoring in salary
scales for the Govt. officials, RBI, NABARD,
LICI and other financial sectors and also the significant
improvement in the health of PSU Banks including SBI. The basic tenets of the principles pursued by trade
unions' in espousing the cause of the workforce giving
cognizance to the legitimate aspirations and expectations of present
workforce in the industry:
1.
The contribution of the workforce during
the testing time of the Covid19
pandemic keeping
the wheels of the economy moving at the cost of
lives & livelihood of
thousands of Bankers across the nation, implementing various schemes of the Govt. for economic progress of the nation
as well as to provide succor to the distressed weaker
section of the society have vindicated the importance
of Public Sector Banks. With undertaking these activities even at the cost of lost opportunities has to be measured as Social Profit along with Balance
sheet profit. Further,
banking today is purely officer driven
and the objective of wage revision
must be to attract real talents to the Industry and thus it should be
constructed on factors
like Risk, Responsibility,
Accountability And
Transferability.
2.
The Pillai committee
recommendations were the basic premise and precursor to the Historical Bipartite settlements, our Endeavour must be to recall and restore the parities we enjoyed within the banking
system and also with the civil service
officers.
3.
The practice of
industry level settlement is the popular preference of the Industry
as the banking industry
has many commonalities commencing from business
handling to practices adopted and it would be matching
to accepted basic principle among the
working class that 'Equal Work, Equal
Pay'. Parity among banks is
paramount for which the industry level settlements have helped a
lot.
4.
Though the country
has got similar economic environment which commands uniform banking practices,
some banks are attempting to adopt different business standards through categorization of branches which denies the uniform working conditions in the branches
of various banks which again is an attempt to derail the BIPARTITE arrangement
in the industry to bring uniformity among the officers in the industry
irrespective of the status of the individual banks. Thus we may have to bring
in uniformity in the categorization of the bank branches, keeping the business uniformity in the Industry, which was available in the Industry till 2000.
5.
The number of women officers and employees is increasing and it is imperative that we
must follow the accepted global norms in
providing conducive and comfortable atmosphere
in work place in resonance with the robust principles of gender equality.
Special scheme for reimbursement
of
expenses for Child Care facilities to female
employees
and single male employees (parents) for
maximum 2 dependent children up to the age of 5 years to
be introduced at Industry
level.
6.
It would be our
endeavour to ensure
uniformity in perks and facilities to the bank officers
in the Industry irrespective of business and presence.
7.
The basic essence of pension as listed in the pensions regulations 1995, section 35 (i)
is for
employees retired between 01.01.1986 & 31.10.1987)
and the various court's judgments must be effected in letter and spirit as the pension
is not gratis and it is
the basic
right of an officer
who dedicated his life and career
for the institution and the pension updation for pensioners and family pensioners must be settled.
8.
The present workforce
in banks consist
of highly educated
and tech-savvy officers, who have joined the Indian banking system in large numbers
with the dream and aspiration to
make a
career in
Banking as well
as to
serve the
nation. With the adoption of
fast track promotion system in the last decade put in place by
banks and due to mergers/ amalgamations in the banking industry
promotion avenues have got clogged.
In recent times and shall dry up further in the coming years. This invariably will lead to wide spread frustration amongst the rank and
file. To address
this sensitive issue
as well as to address the anomalies in fitment on promotion, we must ensure the elongation of the running scale
by converting the stagnation increment into regular increments and to make running scale for Scale I to Scale IV
and Scale IV to Scale VIII.
9.
We demand rollback of the present Medical Insurance
scheme because
of large scale denial of legitimate reimbursements by TPA, without any effective resolution process in place which
is a departure from the agreed clauses in the joint note and thus should revert to the bank level settlement of medical reimbursement with
100%
coverage for family, dependents and improved facilities.
10.
The changes in service conditions introduced has had a negative
impact and impression.
The Public Sector Banks and RRBs have justified and vindicated the historic
decision of Bank
Nationalization through its contribution making India self reliant, protected
the country from global financial
meltdown, made yesteryear SSI units into global industrial giants, implemented financial inclusion programmes of Government, implemented the Demonetized scheme
across the country through vast network, yeomen
service during the Covid19 pandemic,
kept the wheels of the economy
moving at all situations
Despite mergers and
amalgamations followed by
closure of thousands of bank branches,
PSBs and RRBs have retained
65% of the Deposits and 60% over the total credit requirement.
PMJDY statistics reveal out of 47.09 crore beneficiaries, 45.76 crore account are with PSBs
Source: www.pmjdy.gov.in
Thousand of Bankers have laid down their lives during
Covid-19 pandemic in line of duty as soldiers of financial army. Hon'ble Prime Minister,
Hon'ble Finance Minister
have acknowledged the heroic role of bankers at various forums.
Today, despite absorbing humongous haircuts in resolution of NPAs, making provisions, implementing changed norms to introduce AQR, all the PSBs today have declared net profit
in FY 2022.
|
OPERATING/NET PROFIT OF PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS
(Rupees in crore) |
|||
|
Sr. No. |
Bank |
Operating Profit |
Net Profit |
|
1 |
State Bank of India |
75292 |
31676 |
|
2 |
Punjab National Bank |
20761 |
3457 |
|
3 |
Indian Bank |
12785 |
3945 |
|
4 |
Bank of Baroda |
22389 |
7272 |
|
5 |
Bank of India |
9988 |
3405 |
|
6 |
Union Bank of India |
21873 |
5232 |
|
7 |
Indian Overseas Bank |
5762 |
1710 |
|
8 |
Central Bank of India |
5741 |
1045 |
|
9 |
UCO Bank |
4797 |
930 |
|
10 |
Punjab & Sind Bank |
1330 |
1039 |
|
11 |
Canara Bank |
23089 |
5678 |
|
12 |
Bank of Maharashtra |
4847 |
1152 |
|
|
Total |
208654 |
66541 |
Let us
make it abundantly clear that today the banking is purely an officer driven industry. As
stated earlier, banking
industry has undergone demographic metamorphosis. In most banks
the number of officers have exceeded the number of workmen.
The onus of implementation and fructification all policy and business growth parameters
is shouldered by officers
only. Consequently, the officers are only made accountable and are
vulnerable to the consequences.
They also
have to face the challenges of transfers across the country and often have to sacrifice their family life which also impacts
education of their children.
Hence, it is crystal clear that the officers have to be given a decent and fair wage revision to keep the workforce motivated, focused and commensurate with their
risks and responsibilities.
The
Digital India Scheme has been largely successful in the Banking Industry due to
the officers and
officers' organisations. With digitization, the risk and responsibility of officers has
increased substantially/ manifold.
Today, over 70% of transaction in banking industry is happening on digital platform
and the officers are playing a significant role in translating
the Government's vision of "Digital India".
The performance of
the Banking Sector after the last wage
revision has improved significantly.
All
the banks have registered sequentially higher Net Profit,
Net NPA reduced
significantly; Capital Adequacy
improved paving the way for higher credit off take in fostering development and growth
of the Nation.
It is needless to reiterate the role of banks in ensuring the financial stability
in the country and its role in executing the various promotional or poverty alleviation programs which has consistently improved standard of living of the economically weaker section of the society, in particular the rural poor in India.
PSBs/
RRBs have earned plaudits for yeoman service rendered during the Covid19 crisis
and have been consistently implementing all the schemes of the Govt. in boosting the economy, providing affordable banking service at every nook and corner of the Country by way of financial inclusion. It is worthwhile to note that the opportunity cost involved and the social profit earned is never computed. When we compare
cost to income
ratio of Public sector banks vis-a vis
Private sector banks, our banks are often criticized for having a higher ratio.
However, the opportunity cost in implementing
Govt. sponsored schemes and the social profit
earned is never factored in.
Direct benefit transfers, schemes like Sukanya Samriddhi, PMJJBY, PMFBY, PMSBY,
Life cover under PMJDY, PM VVY, RWBCIS are all implemented
by PSBs
and RRBs.
The efforts of the PSBs / RRBs by implementing Govt. schemes to bring
social harmony and the consequent prosperity
emerging out of it is seldom
acknowledged, appreciated and never quantified in monetary terms. The economic upliftment of the society can be attributed to the efforts of the PSBs / RRBs in extending
affordable banking, 'sasti
banking'. Women empowerment
is also make possible
due to efforts of PSBs/ RRBs by
financing millions of 'self help groups'.
Implementation
of all these schemes by PSBs / RRBs have not only
uplifted the economically weaker
section but also generated purchasing
power which made India a lucrative destination of the foreign investors. Thus, the social
profit generated should
be given due cognizance while
determining quantum of wage revision of
officers.
APPROACH TO grH
JOINT NOTE EFFECTIVE FROM 1sr NOVEMBER, 2022 SALARY REVISION AND ALLOWANCESOBJECTIVE:
The remuneration package of the Bank Officers
needs to be framed in such a manner that officers would feel that they are compensated adequately and fairly commensurate with the work load and shouldering of risks and responsibilities. More so, from the following comparative studies with the salary structure of officers of
Life Insurance Corporation of India, it can
easily be ascertained that with the
conclusions of salary revision of
officers in banking industry and LICI,
it is to be noted from 01.08.1997 LICI officers are gradually outdistancing the
Bank Officers and at present the salary
structure of LICI Officers are considerably higher than the Bank Officers. Incidentally, both were at par upto 01.11.1992 / 01.08.1992,
Remuneration of officers of the Banks
is an important element of proactive functioning in Banks in the era of competitive environment and their commitment,
dedication and hard labour towards the progress
of the economy of the country. In general, the level and structure of salary
/ remuneration / compensation should aim to
achieve the
following objectives:
I.
Salary Structure should be sufficient to attract and retain quality officers.
II.
Salary Structure should motivate officers to work hard.
Ill. Remuneration should induce other
human resource management reforms.
IV.
Salary should be set at a
level to ensure
relativity with minimum salary in Banks
and officers' initial pay in line with
compression ratio, initial pay and their minimum pay of workmen of banks.
V.
Salary
should take into account
the Risk, Responsibility, Accountability and also the Transferability of Officers.
VI.
The Bank Officers have a status
similar to the Govt.
Officials and to maintain that status the salary should be adequate,
by offering
additional cushion.
VII.
As promotions depend only on vacancies, which depends on the presence
and business of the
individual banks, nobody should be allowed
to stagnate and running scale should be introduced.
VIII.
The anguish, agony and the aspirations of lady officers should be taken into account
IX.
Superannuation benefits should help one to live a respectable life after retirement
X.
The hard work and contribution of the bankers
for the development of the economy should be acknowledged through decent salary
hike and allowances.
We insist that the anomaly
created in the last wage revision by providing special
allowance with DA instead of Basic Pay
has to be rectified this time. The
merger of special allowance and DA with the Basic
Pay has been done already for LIC Officers and RBI Officers.
A standardization of salary and allowances
for Bank
staff has been done by a Committee
famously known as the Pillai Committee
which gave certain recommendations in 1974
which were further discussed and rationalized
and implemented
in 1979.
Pillai Committee had taken into account the guidelines of UN publication, handbook
of Civil Service Law and practices 1966,
which mentioned 3 major requirements of sound pay structure
viz. inclusiveness (pay structure in
relation to other sectors of
economy) comprehensibility (an easy quick picture of gross emoluments)
and adequacy (to attract right type of persons and retain them). The Pillai Committee
added 2 more
viz. rationality (functions
and responsibility of posts) and career
planning.
It said in view of the importance
of the national approach to wage problems we consider it necessary to make the pay structure in nationalized banks broadly similar to that obtaining in the Central Government and in Public
Sector undertakings.
The committee also said, "If
the objective of attracting the best talent
in the country is to be
achieved, the pay of the bank
officers at the entry level should not be anything less than that obtaining in Class I
services and Public Sector industries"
The
Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate
legislation in its 141 report has also endorsed these principles.
However
between 1979 and now there is a huge downward
trend in the Bank Officials salary which has to be rectified
now.
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Period of CPC |
Minimum |
Period of Bipartite |
Minimum |
Comparison of |
||
|
|
B.P. of |
Settlements |
B.P. of |
Basic Pay |
||
|
|
Central |
|
Bank |
|
||
|
|
Govt. |
|
Officers |
|
||
|
|
Officers |
|
Rs. |
|
||
|
|
Rs. |
|
|
|
||
|
Ill CPC (1973 |
700 |
PCR |
|
01.10.1979 |
700 |
Both are same |
|
to 1985) |
|
1st |
JN |
01.02.1984 |
1175 |
Bank officers BP is |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
67.85% higher |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
than officers of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cent. Govt. |
|
IV
CPC (1986 |
2200 |
2nd |
JN |
01.11.1987 |
2100 |
Bank officers' BP is |
|
to 1995) |
|
|
|
|
|
4.54%lower than |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
officers of Cent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Govt. |
|
|
|
3rd |
JN |
01.11.1992 |
4250 |
Bank officers' BP is |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
93.18% higher |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
than officers of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cent. Govt. |
|
V CPC (1996 |
8000 |
4th |
JN |
01.11.1997 |
7100 |
Bank officers' BP is |
|
to
2005) |
|
|
|
|
|
8.75% lower than |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
officers of Cent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Govt. |
|
|
|
JN |
01.11.2002 |
10000 |
Bank officers' BP is |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
25%
higher than |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
officers of Cent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Govt. |
|
VI CPC (2006 |
21000 |
6th |
JN |
01.11.2007 |
14500 |
Bank officers' BP is |
|
to
2015) |
(15600+ |
|
|
|
|
30.95% lower than |
|
|
5400) |
|
|
|
|
officers of Cent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Govt. |
|
|
|
7th |
JN |
01.11.2012 |
23700 |
Bank officers' BP is |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12.85% higher |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
than officers of |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cent. Govt. |
|
VII
CPC (2016 |
56100 |
8th |
JN |
01.11.2017 |
36000 |
Bank officers' BP is |
|
onwards) |
|
|
|
|
|
35.83 % lower than |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
officers of Cent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Govt. |
Comparison of Basic Pay of Bank Officers and Officers of Life Insurance Corporation of India
|
BANK OFFICERS |
LIC OFFICERS |
||
|
Date of Effect |
Initial Basic Pay |
Date of Effect |
Initial Basic Pay |
|
01/11/1992 |
4250 |
01/08/1992 |
4250 |
|
01/11/1997 |
7100 |
01/08/1997 |
7535 |
|
01/11/2002 |
10000 |
01/08/2002 |
11110 |
|
01/11/2007 |
14500 |
01/08/2007 |
17240 |
|
01/11/2012 |
23700 |
01/08/2012 |
32795 |
|
01/11/2017 |
36000 |
01/08/2017 |
53600 |
|
Basic
Pay increase from
1992 to 2017 |
8.57 times |
Basic Pay increase from 1992 to 2017 |
12.61 times (almost 149% higher than from banks in 2017) |
The above
table only establishes the gradual erosion in minimum
Basic Pay of Bank Officers in comparison to Central
Government Officers
with the passage of two decades.
Merging of Dearness
Allowance: Dearness Allowance to
be merged on 8456 point of CPl(IW) at the average index
for the quarter April & May, June effective from
01st August 2022 on which date DA was
36.82%.
Loading after merging of D.A & Respective Special Allowance with D.A.: After merging of DA on 8456 point of CPl(IW) and merging of respective
Special Allowance with DA, and adequate and additional loading needs to be given so that Basic Pay scales
of Bank Officers can be framed at
a moderate stage though it will be comparatively at lower
side than the Basic Pay scales of
Life Insurance Corporation of India.
|
|
Scale I to Ill |
Scale IV & V |
Scale VI & VII |
|
Suppose existing Basic Pay is |
Rs.100.00 |
Rs.100.00 |
Rs.100.00 |
|
Add: D.A 36.82% merged |
Rs. 36.82 |
Rs. 36.82 |
Rs. 36.82 |
|
Sub Total |
Rs.136.82 |
Rs.136.82 |
Rs.136.82 |
|
Add: Spl Allowance (16.40) + DA |
Rs. 22.43 |
Rs. 26.00 |
Rs. 27.40 |
|
Total |
Rs. 159.25 |
Rs. 162.82 |
Rs. 164.22 |
|
Adequate additional load to be added to above |
|||
All existing scales to be
revised as: 8th Joint Notes scales X 159.25% to 164.22% Plus Adequate and additional load
on Basic = 9th Joint Note scales (rounded off to
nearest Rs.10)
RUNNING SCALE:
In order to ensure officers continue to earn increment and not get stagnated due to lack of promotional opportunities, we
need to have merger of scales to
rationalise the pay scales. We propose merger of present
8 scales to be reduced into 2 scales as under:
1.
Scale - I
2.
Scale - II
- Manager Grade
- Executive Grade
- Integration of current Scale I to Scale IV
- Integration of current Scale V to Scale VIII
1. DEARNESS ALLOWANCE w.e.f. 01.11.2022
•
D.A to be paid on the basis of CPl(IW) (2001=100) in lieu of CPl(IW) (1960=100)
•
D.A
to be revised on the basis
of every month index of CPI (IW) instead
of average of quarterly index.
•
D.A to be revised on rise and fall of every point in the index in lieu of per slab of 4 points.
2. STAGNATION INCREMENT w.e.f. 01.11.2022
A) The periodicity of all
existing Stagnation Increments Scale-I to Scale-V should be reduced by one year i.e. all stagnation increments shall become
extension of scales
into running scales.
Rationale: Currently for want of adequate running
scales, fitment on promotion from clerical to officer cadre and from one officer grade scale
to another are being clubbed and fitted into one stage at such higher cadre
thereby senior and junior starts at same Basic.
B)
Two Additional Stagnation increments at 2 year
periodicity to be introduced for all grades
of officers i.e. right from Scale I to Scale VIII. (as almost
all banks now have
CGM cadre officers)
Rationale:
Following merger of Banks, rationalisation of branches / offices, lateral
recruitments and promotion at shorter intervals, promotional avenues have shrunk.
Officers at every scale
is stagnating for years in same Basic. Consequently, they are expected to
perform and discharge duty of the Scale
without any salary hike and thus getting de-motivated which is not healthy for any institution. Incidentally, 7th Pay Commission observed that it has
been kept in view that a person should not stagnate but should have fair opportunity to progress by dint of merit and secure
better emoluments so that frustration does not set in.
3. SPECIAL ALLOWANCE w.e.f. 01.11.2022
It is pertinent to note that substantial difference have since been created between the Basic salary of officers in banks and LICI, Govt. of India officers and
subsequently the Special Allowance
introduced in the 7th Joint Note/10th BPS is further eroding retirement benefits thus
severely affecting Pension after
retirement . Further, there is apparently no forward movement
as regards updation of pension is concerned. Thus, it is a legitimate demand that
the Special Allowance should be merged.
It may be noted that presently around 40% employees are under defined Pension scheme, hence the load
on superannuation has substantially reduced.
4. FITMENT:
Fitment of Basic Pay shall be stage-to-stage basis i.e. corresponding stages from 1st stage onwards and
the increments shall fall on the anniversary date as usual.
5. HOUSE RENT ALLOWANCE
W.E.F. 01.11.2022
Existing rates of HRA to be revised as under:
i)
ii) iii)
Existing Rate 9% on Basic Pay 8% on
Basic Pay 7% on Basic Pay
Revised Rate
10% on Basic Pay + PQP+FPP 9% on Basic Pay + PQP+FPP
8% on Basic Pay + PQP+FPP
Justification: While Housing loan to staff is being increased keeping in tandem with the market rate increase
(inflation adjusted), the rental limit remained stagnant and only notionally
increased on the basis of Basic hike
from settlement to settlement.
The
existing HRA on Capital Cost
basis @150%
on the revised HRA will
continue.
6.
RECOVERY OF HOUSE/ FURNITURE RENT
i) House rent recovery/furniture fixture recovery should be suitably reduced.
7.
CITY COMPENSATORY ALLOWANCE w.e.f. 01.11.2022
i)
ii)
Existing
Rs.1400 p.m. Rs.1150p.m.
Revised
Rs.2200
p.m. Rs.1800 p.m.
8. LOCATION ALLOWANCE (Non-CCA Centres) w.e.f. 01.11.2022
Existing Allowance of Rs.700 p/m.
to be
revised to Rs.1100 p/m.
9.
LEARNING ALLOWANCE w.e.f. 01.11.2022
Existing Rs.600
p.m. to be revised to Rs.1000
p.m. and this allowance
ranks for Dearness Allowance only.
10. FIXED PERSONAL PAY (FPP) w.e.f. 01.11.2022
The
quantum of FPP to be fixed according to the last increment of different grades including
fixed Dearness Allowance as is applicable on 01.11.2022 and rate
of HRA to be considered at the highest level of HRA payable without linking to any place of posting. We also demand de freezing of FPP according
to place
of posting/stay.
11. PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION PAY (PQP) w.e.f. 01.11.2022
In line with the provisions
of Award Staff, officers should also
be given one increment for passing JAIIB and two increments for passing CAIIB.
We insist
that the anomaly
created in the 7th Joint Note onwards by providing special allowance with DA instead of Basic
Pay has to be rectified this time. The merger of special allowance and DA with the Basic
Pay has been done already for LIC Officers and RBI Officers.
A standardization of salary and allowances for Bank staff has been done by a Committee famously known as the Pillai Committee which gave certain
recommendations in 1974 which were further
discussed and rationalized and implemented in 1979.
Pillai Committee had taken into account the guidelines of UN publication, handbook of Civil Service Law and practices 1966,
which mentioned 3 major requirements of sound pay structure
viz. inclusiveness (pay structure in relation to other sectors of economy)
comprehensibility (an easy quick picture of gross emoluments) and adequacy (to attract
right type of persons and retain them). The
Pillai Committee added 2 more viz. rationality (functions and responsibility of posts) and career planning.
It said in view of the importance
of the national approach to wage problems
we consider it necessary to make the pay
structure in nationalized banks broadly
similar to that obtaining in the Central
Government and in Public Sector undertakings.
The committee also said, "If
the objective of attracting the best talent
in the country is to be
achieved, the pay of the
bank officers at the entry level should not be anything less than that
obtaining in Class I services
and Public
Sector industries"
The
Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate legislation in its 141 report has also endorsed these principles.
However, between 1979 and now
there is a substantial downward trend
in the Bank Officers salary which has to be rectified now.
Comparison of minimum salary of Bank Officers with that of minimum salary of Clerical and Subordinate staff of Bank since 6th Bipartite Settlement/3rd JN to 11th Bipartite Settlement/8th JN
|
Date Period |
Basic Pa y |
Subordin DA |
ate Sta ,------- --- Total |
ff ---,==i========l I%
of Basic increase Pay |
DA |
increase |
Officer cadre
Basic DA % of Pay increase |
|||||
|
31.10.1992 |
815 |
748 |
1563 |
|
900 |
826 |
1726 |
|
2100 |
1928 |
392 8 |
|
|
|
|
(91.79%) |
|
|
|
(91.7 9%) |
|
|
|
(91.79%) |
|
|
|
01.11.1992 |
1600 |
|
1662 |
6.33 |
1750 |
67 |
1817 |
5.27 |
|
164 |
441 4 |
11 .43 |
|
|
|
|
|
(29.5 2%) |
||
|
01.11.2007 |
5500 |
396 |
5896 |
12.11 |
|
446 |
|
9th Bipartite |
|
(7.2%) |
|
|
|
(7.2 %) |
|
31.10.2012 |
5850 |
4107 |
|
|
7200 |
5054 |
|
|
|
(70.20%) |
|
|
|
(70.2 0%) |
** For Pay upto Rs.9650 0.18% per slab i.e. 4.14%
From Rs.9651 to Rs.15350 0. 15% per slab i.e.3.45%
Salient features of above table.
Item no.1
|
|
Sub-Staff |
Salary |
!Officer Salary |
!comparison |
||||
|
On
01.11.1992 |
Rs. |
11662 |
Rs. |
4414 |
Officer salary 165.58% higher |
|||
|
On
01.11.1997 |
Rs. |
2700 |
Rs. |
7458 |
Officer salary 176.22% higher |
|||
|
On
01.11.2002 |
Rs. |
4228 |
Rs.10413 |
Officer salary 146.28% higher |
||||
|
On 01.11.2007 |
Rs. |
5896 |
Rs.15544 |
Officer salary 163.63% higher |
||||
|
On
01.11.2012 |
Rs.10602 |
Rs.26283 |
Officer salary 147.90% higher |
|||||
|
On
01.11.2017 |
Rs
14,886 |
Rs36958 |
Officer Salary 148.27% higher |
|||||
|
Item No.2 |
|
|||||||
|
|
Clerical Salary |
Officer Salary |
!comparison |
|||||
|
On 01.11.1992 |
Rs. 1817 |
Rs.4414 |
Officer salary 142.92% higher |
|||||
|
On 01.11.1997 |
Rs.3172 |
Rs. 7458 |
Officer salary 135.11% higher |
|||||
|
On 01.11.2002 |
Rs.4593 |
Rs.10413 |
Officer salary
126.71% higher |
|||||
|
On 01.11.2007 |
Rs. 6646 |
Rs.15544 |
Officer salary 133.88% higher |
|||||
|
On 01.11.2012 |
Rs.13047 |
Rs.26283 |
Officer salary 101.44% higher |
|||||
|
On 01.11.2017 |
Rs 18,376 |
Rs 36958 |
Officer Salary
101.12 % higher |
|||||
|
Item No.3 |
||||||||
|
Officer Salary |
Officer Salary |
% of increase |
||||||
|
on 31.10.2007 |
on 01.11.2007 |
on 01.11.2007 |
||||||
|
Rs.12952 |
Rs.15544 |
20.01% |
||||||
|
Item No.4 |
|
|
||||||
|
Officer Salary |
Officer Salary |
% of increase |
||||||
|
on 31.10.2012 |
on 01.11.2012 |
on 01.11.2012 |
||||||
|
Rs.24679 |
Rs.26283 |
6.49% |
||||||
|
Officer Salary |
Officer Salary |
% of increase |
||||||
|
On 31.10.2017 |
On 01.11.2017 |
On 01-11.2017 |
||||||
|
Rs 35029 |
36958 |
5.50% |
||||||
It is also necessary to see that the decrease
in the increase of salary
over a period in relation to the
subordinate staff and clerical staff
also should be arrested
in this wage revision.
Comparison of Basic Pay of Bank Officers and Officers of Life Insurance
Corporation of India
|
BANK OFFICERS |
LIC OFFICERS |
||
|
Date of effect |
Basic Pay |
Date of effect |
Basic Pay |
|
01.11.1992 |
4250 |
01.08.1992 |
|
|
01.11.1997 |
7100 |
01.08.1997 |
7535 |
|
01.11.2002 |
10000 |
01.08.2002 |
11110 |
|
01.11.2007 |
14500 |
01.08.2007 |
17240 |
|
01.11.2012 |
23700 |
01.08.2012 |
32795 |
|
01.11.2017 |
36000 |
01.08.2017 |
53600 |
|
Date |
Bank |
DA Merging of CPI |
Date |
LIC |
DA Merging of CPI |
|
01.11.2007 |
2836 |
7.2% |
01.08.2007 |
2944 |
3.15% as on 01.11.2007 |
|
01.11.2012 |
4440 |
10.9% |
01.08.2012 |
4708 |
1.68% as on 01.11.2012 |
|
01.11.2017 |
6352 |
2.66% |
01.08.2017 |
6352 |
3.04% as on 01.11.2017 |
Comparative Salary of officers of Bank and LIC as on 01.11.2007 and 01.11.2012 at entry level
|
Date |
Bank Officers LIC Officers |
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
D.A. |
Spl. I Total j p |
B.P. |
D.A. |
Spl |
Total |
Difference |
LIC officers |
|
|
|
|
|
Allow |
|
I |
|
|
|
salary is |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
, 7, |
I 8 |
|
higher by |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1543 |
|
|
9 (8-5) |
|
|
01.11.2007 |
14500 |
1044 |
|
15544 |
17240 |
|
17783 |
2239 |
14.40% |
|
|
|
|
(7.2%) |
|
|
|
(3.15%) |
|
|
||
|
01.11.2012 |
23700 |
2583 |
1837 |
|
32795 I |
551 |
|
33346 |
5226 |
18.58% |
|
|
|
(10.9%) |
|
|
|
|
(1.68%) |
|
|
|
|
01.11.2017 |
36000 |
958 |
5904 142862 |
53600 |
- |
4500 |
58100 |
15238 |
35.55% |
|
|
|
|
(2.66%) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From the above analysis it is evident as under:
•
As on 01.11.1992 the Basic Pay of officers of Bank and LIC at entry level were same.
•
As on 01.11.2007 LIC officers were getting 14.40% higher salary than Bank officers.
•
As on 01.11.2012 LIC officers were getting 18.58% higher salary than Bank officers.
•
As on 01.11.2017 LIC officers were getting 35.55% higher salary than Bank officers
So, it is crystal
clear that the Bank Officers' salary is drastically being reduced gradually
resulting in erosion of wage in comparison to LIC officers. In the same principle of the Pillai Committee recommendation, Bank Officers salary should be at par with the
Govt. as well as LIC Officers.
Of and on it comes for discussions
while salary of Central
Govt. employees gets revised
at 10 years interval, Bank employees' salary is being
revised at 5 years interval. Let us analyse,
as under, that despite salary
revision at 5 years interval
how salary of Bank officers
is lagging behind during last 23 years duration in comparison to salary of Central Govt. Officers Group- A
at entry level onwards. Please
also note that 7th Pay Commission has recommended that
without waiting for next pay commission
the salary should be revised
based on the data given by Simla based Labour Bureau.
I 01.01.2016
Date Central Govt Officers Group Bank Officers Central Govt. Officer Group A Bank Officers A I Basic Grad D.A. Total Basic Special D.A. Total Difference Pay I e Pay Pay Allow Rs. 01.11.1992 2200 1826 4026 4250 164 4414 388 CJ (83%) (3.85%) (Salary of Bank officers was
higher by 9.63%) 01.11.2012 15600 I 5400I D 15120 I36120 23700 1837 2784 28321 7799 (72%) (7.75%) (10.9%) (Salary of Bank officers was lower by 27.53%) 9 I I I I I I I (39.8%) (Salary of Bank officers was lower by 57.13%)
56100
56100
23700
1837
10164
35701
2039 n
•
From 01.11.1992 to 01.01.2016 the salary of
Central Govt. Group A officers
has been increased by 1293.44%
(56100-4026=52074/4026 X 100) at entry
level.
•
From 01.11.1992 to 01.01.2016 the salary
of Bank officers
has been increased
by 708.81%
(35701-4414=31287/4414 X 100) at entry level.
Moreover the 7th Pay
Commission has recommended that there is no
need for a commission once in 10
years. It has recommended that based on
the Labour Bureau reports the increase can
be done periodically.
•
In case of RBI officers, the starting basic pay
which was Rs 17100 has been increased to Rs 28150 and at entry level.
They also get a local allowance of 5% of pay, family allowance of 4% of Pay, Grade allowance of Rs.6000 and a special allowance of
Rs.6000 (Rs.1625 for those who
joined in 2016) which is eligible
for DA. So their salary structure is much superior to other
bank officers.
There is a sea of difference in the emoluments between the new generation Private
Sector Banks / Foreign Banks and the Banking Industry covered by the IBA.
These Banks adopt the compensation
system that is prevailing in the new
sectors of the economy on the plea of attracting
the best talent in the financial sector. The same is true in the case of Public
Sector and old generation banks as well.
The competitive environment
is such that the performance of the New Generation
Private Sector Banks is always quoted as a model
for others including the Old generation Private and Public Sector Banks,
whenever the issue of compensation in comparison
with them is raised.
The efficiency parameters are similar and hence the factors of compensation system prevailing in the New Generation Private
Sector and Foreign
Banks should be extended to all Bank Employees
as well. They have lunch allowance, huge entertainment allowance and also many of the allowances are tax free as the Bank pays the tax.
What is important
is that the Asst. Managers in these
Private Banks are only doing clerical job and
comparison
between the KRA of our officers of JMGS-1 Grade with that of junior executives of private banks will reveal that the quantum of
risk, responsibility and accountability of our officers is significantly
higher than them. A comparative KRA of our
officers vis-a-vis executives of the private banks who handle such
responsibility will amply establish that
the emoluments of officers of PSBs are
inferior to the private sector counterparts.
We also demand that the salary and allowance and service
conditions
should be made applicable automatically to officers serving in Regional Rural Banks
The pay scales will be arrived at based
on the above principles discussed.
While constructing Basic Pay, 5.26%
of the difference on DA with LICI should be added and the
new Basic Pay should be worked out once again,
The present 7 Scales be reduced to two scales.
a)
Scale
1- Manager Grade
- Integration of present Scale I to IV &
b)
Scale
II - Executive Grade - Integration of Scale V, VI, VII, VIII
Since the entire D.A. outstanding as on 01.08.2022 is to be merged
with the existing Basic Pay, the
percentage of revised D.A. as on 01.11.2022,
for every
rise or fall of four points of index on the quarterly average
of D.A..
In
addition to the above, the difference of DA of LIC should also be included
while arriving at the revised
DA.
Existing facility of leased accommodation should be extended for self -lease of own property.
The
existing classification of centre should be reviewed classified in the following categories:
Major
Metro
II Metros (Area I)
Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Bangalore,
Hyderabad, Ahmedabad,
Pune, Goa etc.
All centres with more than 12 lakh Population and State Capitals
Ill Centres with population
of 1 lakh and above and all District Head quarters
F.P.P.: It
should be the last increment without any
ceiling. FPP to be de-frozen.
PQP:
For completion of Part I JAIIB and Part II CAIIB, one and two increments respectively are to be considered instead of consolidated amount as in the past.
1.
Removal of anomalies in wage fixation of Central Para Military Personnel joining Bank :
Extension of benefit of Pay Fixation to the Officers, who joined
in the Bank from Central
Armed Police Forces /Para-Military Forces/ State Police, which mean Border
Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Inda
- Tibet Border
Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)
and State Police etc. in accordance
with the guideline issued
by Government
of India
time to time in the matter.
Before 2005,
a majority of officers from Defence
Forces (which includes Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy) are joining in
the bank in the specialised cadre whereas; few Officers from Central Armed Police Forces /Para-Military Forces/
State Police are joining at that time. After 2005, there is a transition change in the above scenario
on the wake of better
re settlement facility
arranged/provided by Director
General Resettlement (DGR) to the Officers
of Defence forces in the Public /Private sectors and due to lagging
behind wage settlements at subsequent
stages as compared to PSU/Central/Private sectors. And accordingly, theses officers
preferred joining the Institution,
other than the Public Sector Banks
(PSB), where they get better remuneration and other benefits. Therefore, the gap has been filled up by the officers
from Ex Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) Officials and now majority of the officers working in the PSB banks in the
specialized cadre of Security (Security
Officers) are from CAPF only. However, it is observed
that despite the appropriate Government direction,
these Officers have been denied their legitimate right of Pay Fixation in the same line as the Officers from Defence Forces are/were getting after joining the Bank.
Banking
Division, Department of Economic Affairs, Government
of India, has issued direction vide F.No-201/3/85-SCT(B) dated 14th October 1985 and the same was compiled
and published in the year 1992 by Indian Banks' Association, Mumbai under
"Compendium of Government Guidelines in the matter
of Re-Employment, Pay Fixation etc. of Ex-Servicemen in Public
Sector Banks" (copy of relevant
guideline enclosed). The extracts
of the guideline published by the IBA under reference
is given hereunder:
The Services of these
officers
for this
benefit will only be counted from the date of their
appointment/promotion in the rank of Inspector of
Police/Company Commander or equivalent
rank/post in
the Police/Armed Police/Para-Military Force."
2.
Introduction of Senior - Junior Check Off for Ex-Servicemen Employed in Banks :
The wage fixation of Ex-Servicemen who has retired from Military
and on joining PSBs is based
on the last pay drawn by them from Military.
This has led to an anomaly in which
salary of Ex Servicemen who are already in the service of the Bank becomes
much less compared to an EX-Servicemen
who joins
the Bank much afterwards due to enhancements in wages on account of implementation subsequent Pay
Commission Reports during the intervening period between the retirement dates
of both these Ex-Servicemen. Such anomalies are addressed in Central Govt. Through
a mechanism called Senior
- Junior check
Off. Under Senior - Junior Check off, the wages of a senior will be re-fixed
to ensure that his salary
will be more than the salary fixed for a junior joining the same
post. This ensures that the salary
of a
Senior will be always higher than the salary
of a junior. We demand that Senior - Junior Check off on similar lines to be implemented in PSBs to address this anomaly presently
existing in
PSBs.
The
exercise of salary fitment on promotion should be discussed with the Officers' organisations. It has been established that seniors who were
drawing special allowances are faced with reduction of gross salary on their promotions. Hence, the fitment formula for promotion should be
thoroughly discussed with the officers' organisations along with the wage revision to address the possible anomalies.
PART- II OTHER ALLOWANCES MEDICAL FACILITIES
PERQUISITES LFC / LTC
PART-II
OTHER ALLOWANCES & BENEFITS
INCENTIVES FOR WORKING IN RURAL CENTERS AND OTHER SENSITIVE AREAS:
It is necessary to provide incentives to all those officers who are posted to serve in the rural areas/most
sensitive and difficult areas/ areas with security problems/ areas of weather
aberrations in different parts of the country. It is vital to increase
the rural branches and to succeed in financial inclusion, arresting
skewed growth and migration in urban centers
We propose that
the following incentive may be provided to the officer concerned;
■
Weightage for the purpose of Promotion (already available if they serve beyond minimum period
of two years)
■
Choice place of posting on completion of the assignment
■
An additional LTC
to enable him/her to meet the family etc; (As provided for those serving in North East for the Public Sector Employees)
All the
allowances other than what have been covered in the earlier chapters should be
enhanced appropriately.
As cost
of education has increased exponentially, Education Allowance to be
introduced for school education and higher education similar to that existing in Govt I PSUs / Private
Sector for officers who
face multiple transfers throughout their career. The mid-term academic allowances presently available to some banks
are a pittance and a realistic
allowance in sync with the fee structure prevalent should be introduced.
AREAS DECLARED AS SEZ/NEZ/EPZ:
The branches coming under
the above areas should be treated
on par with Metro Centers for all
allowances and
perquisites.
SPECIAL ALLOWANCE
TO NORTH EAST, SIKKIM, J & K, LEH AND LADAKH, ANDAMAN AND OTHER DISTURBED AREAS:
Special allowance as prevailing in Central GovernmenURBI for Officers serving
in these areas including locals should be extended
to Bank Officers.
CLOSING ALLOWANCE:
With the introduction of
quarterly audited balance sheets for banks, the officers across braches/offices are under extreme
pressure during the quarter end.
We, therefore, demand that
all officers irrespective of the office of posting i.e. branch/administrative office etc.,
should be paid the closing
allowance equal to 15 days of their salary once in 3 months.
HALTING AND TRAVELING ALLOWANCES:
a.
Review and rationalization of Halting/Boarding/Traveling expenses.
b.
The Boarding expenses should be linked to lodging expenses.
c.
All officers should
be eligible for travel by Air, irrespective of distance with Executive Class entitlement for officers in Senior
Management grades.
d.
For places not connected by air, officers should be permitted to travel by AC-1st Class
by rail.
e.
Option to be granted
for travel by road in any other mode also including own vehicle. Seeking permission of the competent authority to be done
away with in case of exigency
and emergent circumstances. The ceiling of entitlement of fuel reimbursement for traveling in own vehicle, irrespective of fuel
category, needs to be improved substantially in the backdrop
of the exponential rise in fuel prices.
f.
Lodging & Boarding expenses and diem allowance for 15 days on transfer to continue.
g.
Officers attending
official duties on deputation within
the urban agglomeration should be paid 50% of the applicable Halting allowance
PERQUISITES, OTHER ALLOWANCES AND WELFARE FACILITIES:
The perquisites and other allowances as well
as welfare facilities provided by the banks and settled at the industry level
should not
be reckoned for the
purpose of
arriving at
the cost of wage revision. It is an essential area of functional expenditure, as in the case of business promotion in other sectors of the economy.
We should strive
for parity in allowances, welfare
facilities and perquisites.
We therefore propose that the Bank should bear the tax on
perquisites.
A special
care and allowance should be paid to the specially/differently abled in terms of the Govt. of India guidelines.
a.
Government guidelines on concessions to such employees in recruitment/ promotion/
transfers/rotations/postings, etc. to be strictly followed by all Banks.
b.
Revision of conveyance allowance paid to these employees
c.
Physically
challenged children of employees to be
defined as dependents irrespective of age or marital
status
d.
25 days CL for physically challenged employees.
e.
Full pension
to physically
challenged employees at 50% of Pay irrespective of service rendered.
f.
Visually impaired employees should be permitted an escort for availing LFC. The entitlement of the escort will be the same as the employee(already existing in RBI)
The
Government guidelines should be implemented in
toto.
The
instructions of Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) vide their
Office Memorandum no. 21/1/2018-E.IIB
dated 15th September 2017 in respect of enhancement of conveyance/transport allowance to specially abled employees
to be introduced in toto in banks forthwith.
Incidentally, Union Bank of India
has enhanced the conveyance
limits for PwDs upto Rs 10,000/-. Let us ensure equality
and inclusivity as integral part of our services.
Disturbance
Area Allowance of 20% of Basic Pay should be paid to officers
working in the branches which comes under disturbed
area and Terrorist prone areas called
as The Red Corridor.
We have to roll back the present IBA medical insurance scheme and switch
over to SBI medical
scheme of direct tie up with hospitals and Nursing homes. Family also should be provided
with 100% reimbursement. Reimbursement of Domiciliary Medical treatment expenditure for
self, spouse and dependent should be introduced. All reimbursements should be exempted from tax, as it is not an
income.
Considering the stress and strain as well as the increasing lifestyle diseases amongst youngsters, we need yearly Executive Health Check-up scheme
for all officers and their spouse.
We need healthy workforce so that it reduces
the future overheads
in the form of medical expenses as also unwarranted
health hazards. The cost to be incurred is actually an investment in future.
LEAVE FARE CONCESSION:
We need to review
the existing scheme
in a comprehensive manner. The entitled mode of
travel should be made as air travel to all officers For Executive Cadre it
should be executive class.
The IBA should take up with the Government and seek exemption
from payment of income tax whenever the amount is drawn on the basis of reimbursement.
SPECIAL ALLOWANCES:
The existing special allowances paid to
different places should be revisited and revised in a comprehensive manner for example
like J &K,
Leh and
Ladakh, Sikkim, North
Eastern States,
, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, disturbed areas and other
similar centers. The hardship allowance should be redefined and new areas
should be added on the basis of the norms already available. It should also be revised
wherever it is already being paid. All the
officers serving in those places
including those who belong to the
same area should also get these allowances in order
to meet the higher cost of living
etc., and wherever it is paid, it should be suitably reviewed.
HILL AND FUEL ALLOWANCE & SPECIAL AREA ALLOWANCE:
Since the Bank officers are paid either of the Hill & Fuel allowance or Special
Area Allowance and both are
not paid in case of payment of Adhoc Temporary Incentive for officers
posted in North East (popularly known as North East
Allowance). In Central Government Special Compensatory/Remote Locality
allowance (Special Area Allowance in our case)
is paid in addition to special duty allowance (Adhoc Temporary Incentive for officers posted in North East in our case). The North East Allowance
as being paid @ 20 % of Basic pay the rate of both the
allowances should be suitably revised as prevailing
in Central Government. The rates of this allowance shall automatically increase
by 25% whenever the Dearness
Allowance payable on revised pay structure goes up by 50% DEPUTATION ALLOWANCE: The allowance
should be suitably revised and made uniform
in the industry.
EX-GRATIA:
The concept of minimum ex-gratia should be
reintroduced in a rational manner. Ex-gratia is now available to all the Foreign Banks etc., which
has created a serious differential in the emoluments between
the workforce in the Public
Sector and other sectors.
It is also prevalent in
Govt. Sector such as Railways/ Postal and in Public Sector Undertakings and
paid during festivals. Hence, an amount equivalent to not less than one month's
gross salary should be paid as ex-gratia to all.
PART
-111 ISSUES CONCERNING LADY OFFICERS:
Thanks
to the awareness that has been created amongst the
women in the country over the last
several years to excel on par with
men in all walks of life, the intake of the
lady officers in the banking industry
has very substantially increased in almost all the banks. It is nearly 50% of
the total recruitment in some of the banks and it may increase
in due course due to the
changing demographic profile of employable
educated youth.
They are also today
accepting challenging postings, transfers, and specialized areas in the banks
without any hesitation. They are now in a position to accept higher responsibility
in their career and look to head the
institutions eventually.
The
Officers' organisations have been receiving a number of representations, memorandum and also resolutions highlighting the
problems of the lady officers through
the various conferences as well as the Women's wing.
Based on these suggestions, it has been decided
to exclusively devote a chapter to consider their special
situation and demand appropriate relief.
One of
the major concerns of the lady Officers has been their placements and postings in the banks. The country is yet to
develop in the matter of infrastructure, the facilities exclusively to the lady members
in different places. Hence, a separate
Transfer/ placement Policy taking into
account the problems of the lady officers should be designed and forwarded to the member banks by IBA. The IT sector
is a classical example where a lot of sympathy is shown to the women employees in the matter of
posting and placement in order to get
the best from them. Yet another
major consideration is their
safety and security at different centers.
The lady
Officers need to be extended the benefit of flexi-time and flexi-place concept.
They should be given
choice of their place at the time of transfer and placement keeping their difficulties in view. The Banks should be advised to keep one exclusive lady officer in charge of Personnel Administration in all the
Banks to attend to their exclusive
issues including transfer, placement etc.
The
Government guidelines pertaining to female officers should be introduced in
all banks.
Flexi timing
as well as work from home facility
should be introduced for a limited
period of 3 years during the entire service.
The Banks
should provide Creche facility for the benefit of children
of officers who are required to attend
to office as the children
need parental attention. There is Government guidelines
too.
The existing
Maternity Leave of 6 months
at a time should also be extended in case of adoption of a child (from
present 3 months) and increased to one year for one birth. 3 months' additional sick leave be sanctioned after attaining the age of 45 years as lady
officers are prone to diseases at this age.
Child Care leave as applicable to the Central
Government employees must be made available to lady officers i.e. two years
CCL with salary.
It should be also extended to male officers if they are single parents.
Many progressive multinationals and IT sector companies have introduced menstrual leave for women employees, which should be immediately introduced in banking industry
in the backdrop of
increase in number of women
officers.
The Paternity leave should be extended to 60 days on 2 occasions.
Of late,
with the increase in lifestyle diseases amongst the youth, there is a significant rise in
cases of infertility. While the
treatment is expensive, it also takes a toll on mental and
physical health.
We, are of the considered opinion that lady officers need to
be sanctioned additional leave of
6 months at different intervals along with salary and medical reimbursement for the treatment should
be provided. This will also apply to men who undergo infertility treatment.
The concept
of "Work from Home" should
be explored by banks for offering
the employees flexi working hours. It will also be very useful for the
officers/employees and especially those who are in the family way or have new born
babies. The increasing number of women in the Bank stands testimony to their faith in the industry
and their commitment amidst all the constraints. A large number of organizations have already come up
with their action-plan to protect the interest of the women in our country. The
trade unions in the organized sector have also contributed their mite to
organize the women workers and help
them in providing leadership to
women workers and to espouse
their cause with the Government
and other
agencies. Besides the IT Sector, the
Banking industry is one of the major sectors, employing a large number of women who are occupying several high positions in the organization. Hence, it is imperative on the part of the Bank as well to protect the interest
of the women and ensure a congenial working
environment along with the option
to work from home
at their convenience.
A Sub Committee may be constituted to arrive at the type of jobs which
can be entrusted under the concept of work from home. Care should also be taken to see that it
does not lead to excessive work and intrude into
the privacy of the employee.
The initiative aims at creating an employee friendly environment,
promoting a healthy work life balance and employee engagement
through welfare measures, in tune with the
best Human Resources practices. This also helps in providing
flexibility to employees to attend
to inevitable exigencies of personal /professional life and will definitely help in reducing
attrition.
h) GENDER SENSITIVITY:
Gender
sensitivity is
the need of the hour with the growing
number of women employees in our esteemed institution. We have an ethical
responsibility in shaping
the current structures by breaking
the previous norms. We are of the considered
view that during all training sessions and official meetings this aspect needs
to be a part of discourse so that all employees become aware of the fact that they need to respect everyone irrespective
of gender.
i)
COMPULSORY HEALTH CHECK-UP FOR ALL WOMEN OFFICERS:
While learning and skill updation is mandatory
in our banking career, Annual Health check-ups should be made compulsory. All officers, including lady officers, should
undergo periodic health check-ups and necessary changes to be incorporated into HRMS so that it cannot
be compromised anyway.
j)
REIMBURSEMENT OF EXPENSES FOR INFERTILITY TREATMENT:
This issue was flagged by the four officers' organisations in the last salary revision talks. While the IBA
team was sympathetic to the issue, no concrete decision emerged.
We are of the considered opinion
that at the bank level there should be a serious thought for reimbursement of treatment for infertility, which is substantial, as such
cases are significantly on the rise along
with the growing lifestyle diseases.
k)
PROVISION OF SANITARY PAD VENDING MACHINE AND INCINERATOR:
It goes without saying that the personal hygiene of women officers is to be ensured at the time of their menstrual cycle. Considering the rise in the number
of women employees and officers, we feel that bank branches/offices/establishments need to be provided with
sanitary pad vending machines and an incinerator in all ladies' restrooms.
I)
ENHANCEMENT OF PERIOD OF MATERNITY LEAVE FROM 6 MONTHS TO 12 MONTHS/ INTRODUCTION OF CHILD CARE LEAVE FOR 2 YEARS:
While this issue was also discussed at the IBA level during the last salary
revision talks, the issue could not be settled to the satisfaction of the concerned
parties. Incidentally, Central Government has implemented 2 years of Child Care Leave (with pay) and many state governments have introduced 12-month maternity leave for women
employees in the backdrop of the present social structure dominated by nuclear families, we feel that at the industry level such a path-breaking initiative
is the need
of the hour.
Many
corporates and
multinationals have introduced Menstrual leave of one day every month for women employees to address the
inconvenience caused during the
menstrual cycle. We feel that introduction of such a
facility will be of immense help to the women
employees/officers in discharging their
duties effectively.
The lady officers who are confronted with extreme exigencies
are often
compelled to apply for sabbatical leave foregoing their salary and
allowances. However, we have
received feedback that at the RBO level
such requests are being rejected rampantly by controllers without applying their minds to
assess the merit of the case which is against the spirit of
this important facility introduced in the bank.
The
request for transfer of the spouse at the same station should be considered with utmost sympathy. In fact, it is the policy of the Government that as far as possible and within the constraints of
administrative feasibility, both spouses should be posted at the same station
to enable them to lead a normal family life.
NEW PENSION SCHEME:
The
employees and officers who joined the banking
industry on or after 01.04.2010 should be governed by
the original pension settlement signed on 29th October
1993 and Gazetted in the year
1995.
Without prejudice to the above,
we wish to point out pertinent flaws in the existing scheme, which need to be suitably addressed till the defined benefit
scheme is extended to all employees.
a)
The additional 4% now
being paid by banks to employees is reckoned as taxable income for bankers unlike their central and state
government counterparts, which
is a clear case of discrimination. The waiver of tax
for the additional contribution of 4% should be introduced with immediate effect.
b)
The employees have no say in asset
allocation of their
money. They should be given an option to choose their pension fund along with an option to change the fund once every year. The returns of various pension funds operating in the market makes it abundantly clear that the bank employees
have been deprived of earning higher returns on their corpus due to the inflexible
clause of selection of pension fund.
c)
Choice of Investment pattern: Bank employees who prefer a fixed return
with minimum
amount of risk shall be given an option to
100% of the funds in Government securities (scheme G). Bank employees who prefer higher returns shall be
given options on life cycle based
schemes having a capped exposure on equity.
d)
Family pension
benefit is not available to NPS optees, which has deprived of the fundamental right of a decent life for families of NPS optees
in case of death of any
employee who is not covered
under Defined Benefit scheme.
Under
regulation, Gratuity should be paid at the rate
of one month salary and allowances
without any ceiling. The gratuity should
be completely exempt
from payment of income tax. The
calculation of gratuity should
be changed as we move over to 5 day work week i.e. the denominator should be 22 instead of 26.
Definition of pay should
be common as per Gratuity
Act. It should
be made applicable uniformly to all.
"Wages" means all emoluments which
are earned by an employee while on duty or on leave in accordance with the terms and conditions of his employment and which are paid or are payable to him in cash and
include dearness allowance but does not include any bonus, commission, house rent allowance, overtime wages and any other allowance.
Based on the principles of retirement
benefits which allot Provident Fund, Gratuity and Pension for different purposes, the Provident Fund should be at the rate of 12% of
the total salary and allowances. The Provident Fund should be payable to all employees.
ENCASHMENT OF LEAVE:
Encashment of entire leave at credit
should also be permitted on resignation and removal.
Presently, half of accumulated PL is eligible
for encashment on resignation.
The existing ceiling on encashment of leave should be removed at the time of resignation / superannuation as directed by the Punjab & Haryana Court judgement. The entire amount should be exempted from income tax as in the case of
the Central Government Employees. Encashment
of PL should be allowed without any ceiling.
MEDICAL BENEFIT SCHEME FOR RETIREES:
A comprehensive
Medical Scheme for pensioners/ retirees should be introduced
in lieu of the existing medical insurance scheme. The premium should be borne by the bank in
recognition of the contribution of the elders.
WELFARE ACTIVITIES:
A separate
allocation of funds for improvements to welfare
of the pensioners should be made every year. The facilities like Holiday Home, clinics, Transit House etc., should be made eligible for pensioners also.
Present ceiling of 3 % of net profit to be given to
welfare activities should be raised
to 5 % of operating profit to be given to welfare activities.
Suitable life cover should be taken for normal as well as accidental
death of employees.
LFC/ HTC FACILITY:
LFC / HTC Facility should be extended to
the retirees also at par with serving employees in recognition of the contribution of the elders.
NEWS PAPER:
News paper and fitness allowance can be provided to the pensioners.
RESTORATION OF COMMUTED VALUE OF PENSION:
At present the commuted value of pension is restored after 15 years. There is a need
to revisit the same and reduce the
period of restoration after 13 years instead of the present 15 years
on the lines of Gujarat Government order dated 12.10.2022.
REGULATED
WORKING HOURS AND 5 DAY WORK WEEK NON MONETARY ISSUES
PART-V
NON - MONETORY - ISSUES REGULATED
WORKING HOURS:
It is
the duty of the banks to provide an appropriate
environment, ambience and above all the HR systems at all branches. The officers' fraternity should also be provided with all amenities such as supply of refreshment, beverages etc.,
inside the branch premises in view of the pressure of
work, long stay in the office etc.,
The
environment should afford an opportunity for full exposure of the creativity
and also efficiency of the officers
while discharging their
duties to the customers as well as the branches. Work-Life balance is very
important too.
The banking
industry is now equipped with excellent technology advancement, continuous
updation of computers, servers etc., there is therefore a need for the Management to adopt appropriate HR initiatives to encourage and motivate the officers, who are the driving force in the industry to acquire knowledge in these fields and give their best to the institution. However, the working atmosphere across the country in banks has become toxic in
general as officers are required to work for extended hours due to the work pressure as well as because
of acute
shortage of manpower. Requisition of
services of officers during Sundays/holidays have become an order
of the day across banks pan India. This has resulted in burn out of officers at an early age and is also causing
large scale attrition from banks
thus reducing manpower even further. The amount
of stress and strain on officers
is also taking a toll on their
health and psyche. We have come across innumerable cases of lifestyle
diseases amongst the youth and even
death of officers due to cardiac arrest and other terminal diseases at an early
age.
The Banking Industry is entrusted
with the responsibility of enhancing
the economic
prosperity of the country and also the GDP growth with a view to enhance
the standard of living of the
common man. The management should ensure that to protect the human assets of the bank, reasonable working hours are fixed rather than pressurizing
the officers to work for extended hours, which may lead to
burn-outs and resultant detrimental effect on health.
Hence, the working hours for officers should be defined and regulated.
Five Day work
week is already available in the international banking system. It is also available in our country in RBI, Central
and State Governments, Public
Sector and in most multinationals
and IT companies.. While many countries
have introduced 4 day work week, we are still discussing on introduction of 5 day work week. We understand that over 70% of the total number of banking transactions are happening on a digital mode, the reduction of cash
transaction hours and introduction of 5 day work week will
enhance the percentage of digital transactions and also in the process ensure that our
officers are rejuvenated to drive the corporate
and government objectives forward.
Given the stress and strain of officers, it is advisable that the working
hours should not exceed
36.5 hours
in a week. The daily
working hours should not be more than 6.5 hours in the normal
course.
Any
officer, who is required to work for
more than 7 hours a day, should be compensated with compensatory
off coupled with adequate financial compensation to the extent of twice
the actual hourly salary in the
normal course. This should be uniform for
the Banking Industry as the Govt often directs banks to work late or on holidays
often and we follow their directions but the quantum of compensation varies between Banks.
They
should also be made eligible to take weekly off to the extent of additional
hours of duty rendered
by them as rest is needed
for recuperation. The officers who are called
upon to work on weekly-off days and holidays, should be adequately
compensated as above and in addition be permitted a compensatory off on a date convenient to them and such weekly
offs be credited to the leave account.
There is a felt need to have uniform holidays to the officers in the Grid, as the holidays are declared by RBI, substantially less number of s are extended to the officers. Going forward there should be state level grids or a
single national grid.
The
Govt. of India guide lines on compassionate appointment is
not being followed by some banks. There has been significant loss of lives of bankers
during the pandemic. While all banks
have increased the quantum of Ex-gratia, it is not uniform across banks. As per direction
of the Ministry, Banks have
initiated compassionate appointments.
However, the process should be expedited. It is pertinent to mention that there is no provision of family pension for NPS optees. Taking
account of the significant rise in the number of NPS optees in the industry, IBA should revise the extant
compassionate appointment policy and dovetail
it to ensure that no case should be rejected on account
of age criteria. Hence, IBA should advise all banks to
uniformly implement Govt. of India guidelines and make necessary changes in the existing
policy. A fixed deadline of 6 months
from submission of claim for each case to be adhered
to without any linkage
to ceiling or vacancies.
The cap of 5% should be removed/scrapped, as currently, banks are declining large number of applications for compassionate appointments for having
reached the maximum number permitted under compassionate appoint scheme.
The
categorization of Branches was done by the Reserve Bank of India earlier. Of
late, some banks have started their own categorization norms which in most
cases adversely affects the category of the branches
and leads to reduction of staff and reduction of vacancy in higher
grades. This in turn reduces career
progression opportunities and will lead to stagnation at a particular grade. The business
level of practically all bank
branches are increasing YoY, hence
we demand that there should be uniform categorization norms for all Public Sector Banks.
Casual leave should be increased to 15 days;
Privilege Leave: In Central Government PL encashment is up to 300 days (as per DOP&T notification 11019/7/93 dated22.12.1993).
Hence, we demand for encashment up to 300 days. Along with tax exemption of the entire
amount as applicable to Central Government employees.
Accumulation of PL also should
be without any ceiling. The extant norms
of 270 days cap to be
removed.
We also demand
that the existing 5/7 days encashment introduced in the 8th Joint Note should be extended to 10/15 days for officers i.e. officers who
attain the age of 55 years to be eligible for encashment of 15 days leave every year, while for others maximum of 10 days leave
to be encashed every year.
Sick Leave 15 days in
a year (on full pay)
without any ceiling. Encashment of sick leave to
the credit of an official to be encashed
at the time of retiremenUresignation/death.
Sabbatical leave: We have come across
several instances of refusal of sabbatical leave of on flimsy ground
by controllers. We have to understand that the officers
apply for the same for some
definite reasons for which they are compelled to go without pay. Hence, banks
have to put in place a definite
time frame for sanction of the same. We demand
sabbatical leave should be extended to male officers.
UCL: UCL to be delinked from sickness and can
be uitlised for any purpose. There should be no cap on accumulation.
Bereavement Leave: Bereavement leave of 15 days to be introduced for death of any family member.
Special Occasion Leave: Officers to be permitted to take Special
occasion leave
for 5 days in a year to celebrate birthday, marriage anniversary etc.
Journey Time Leave: For officers proceeding on leave, posted at remote areas need 1/2 days to reach the nearest
airporUrailway station/bus terminus. That intervening period should be considered as Special Journey Time
leave.
Leave for Sports Personnel: The extant period of 30 days to be enhanced to 60 days.
Sick Leave: Officers to be permitted to avail sick
leave on account sickness of spouse/parenUin-laws/children.
The leave
so calculated should
be credited to the leave
account of
the officer on a consolidated basis. The officer should
be eligible to avail
the leave on the basis of his requirement. The intermittent
holidays and weekly offs should be excluded
while sanctioning leave.
The officer
may be permitted to transfer
leave to another
officer in case of need for medical purpose.
Hon'ble Finance Minister has stated in December 2021 that there are more than 41000 vacancies in Public Sector Banks. While existing vacancies
are not being filled, all banks are now engaging retired officers to do regular
jobs along with outsourcing of jobs on contractual basis. This, we feel, is inimical to the interest
of the nation as it affects
job creation for the unemployed. Further, appointment of contractual workers could also affect the internal security of banks and allow our competitors access to the data warehouse of PSU Banks leading to flight of business.
We demand all types of outsourcing to be abolished.
DISCIPLINARY RULES PROCEDURE & ACCOUNTABILITY:
We have submitted a very comprehensive note to the Indian
Banks' Association for the review of the existing conduct rules and
procedure and to introduce certain changes in tune with the changing environment in
the 8th Joint Note exercise. We are happy to note that IBA has since initiated modifications
based on our recommendations. However, we annex a detailed note in Disciplinary Rules and Accountability, which should be given
due cognizance and implemented forthwith for the benefit of the officers' fraternity.
WITHHOLDING OF GRATUITY ON RETIREMENT/ RELEASE OF TERMINAL BENEFITS:
The present
ad-hoc system of withholding gratuity
and harsh decision
to set off the gratuity amount towards loss caused
etc., should be reviewed keeping in view, the recent judicial pronouncements. In any case, there
should not be stoppage
or denial of gratuity to the officers.
No disciplinary action should be initiated after superannuation and the extant
Pension regulations No 48 to be done away with as it is in conflict with Clause 14 of Gratuity Act and Supreme court judgments. All
Terminal benefits should be released pending disciplinary proceedings if bank fails to complete the proceedings
before superannuation as is being done in the case of CBI cases being
pending.
ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS:
The IBA should take up with the Government, the introduction of an exclusive
Banking Administrative Tribunal for the banking Industry in order to deal with
all the service as well as disciplinary
matters in respect of officers
similar to Central Administrative Tribunal.
INCOME FOR DEPENDENTS:
The present
ceiling of Rs.12,000/- for dependent should
be increased to Rs.30,000/- taking into account minimum basic pay of Rs.18000/- for the Central
Govt. employees which
along with DA amounts to Rs. 30,000/-
PART-VI BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP
PART-VI
GENERAL BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP:
The 9th Joint Note exercise on officers wage revision when resume,
will have a historical significance in the sense that the Management and the Officers' organizations have come a long way in the structured
negotiation systems and have matured
enough to decide
and arrive at a compensation which is generally acceptable to both the parties. In the process we need to have a clear demarcation as regards
the issues concerning the officers'
fraternity and Officers'
organizations should have exclusive
right to negotiate on behalf of the officers in the banking industry. Hence,
all the issues connected with both the
directly recruited officers as well as the officers promoted from clerical cadre have to be decided
between the IBA and the Officers'
organizations. Similarly the issues
of promotion policy, transfer policy,
etc., will have to be settled bilaterally with Officers'
organizations both at the bank
and the industry level.
Presently, there are no officer (non-workman employee) / employee Director in any of the Public Sector Banks. This is total violation of the law of the land and
violates the provisions laid down
in Banking Regulation Act as well as Banking
Companies (Acquisition & Transfer
of Undertakings) Act, 1970 and 1980. As major stakeholders, officers have to be represented in the board of banks and be privy
to the policy decisions taken. IBA should take serious
efforts to clear appointment of officer/employee directors in all the banks.
We are
coming across incidents on a regular basis that a bank officers are assaulted/attacked/abused in the
course of rendering their official duty. Though IPC sections are
available, still security
concerns of Bank officers need to be addressed and demand for statutory provisions to be made from the government.
IBA
should immediately take the matter
with DFS for an early
implementation of Bankers' Protection Act in any form.
The Officers' organizations have been holding
discussions and negotiations with the representatives of the Indian Banks' Association over the last 40 years. The system has got itself streamlined during the last 3 decades and the issues
that are related to the compensation and
also certain issues
of urgent nature are brought
to the IBA forum and decided between both the parties.
There is a need to structure
this conventional arrangement and ensure that all issues affecting the industry and the impact of the directives of the outside
agencies on the officers' fraternity
are brought to this structured forum and decided to avoid unnecessary
irritations in industrial relations in the banking
industry. The proper detailed and codified account of all discussion should be exchanged.
The structured forums are already
in vogue in all the banks. The issues referred
to the banks by the IBA and
the Government is discussed at the bank level negotiations by each organization which leads to
discrepancies in the implementation of any understandings reached between the organizations
and the management.
Certain Industry
level issues have to be discussed at IBA/ Government Level. Hence,
there is a need
to have structured forum at IBA/ Government for periodical
discussions. Hence, there is a
need
to bring all such issues/directives of the IBA and the Government before a structured
meeting and settle to avoid
frequent agitation and industrial unrest in the banking
industry.
As major stakeholders and the driving force in the entire industry, we should be privy to discussions held between IBA and DFS
to foster growth and development of our institutions.
The
Banking industry, being a service industry should place utmost importance of
recruitment for filling up of existing vacancies in various banks. A major pain point is inadequacy
of staff at branches, which lead to customer dissatisfaction as well as put humongous
workload on officers.
A close review of the situation should be considered and necessary steps to be initiated for recruitment of officers. A special recruitment drive should be initiated for difficult terrains
like Kashmir Valley, Sikkim,
North-East states, Andaman & Nicobar Islands,
and other states
which are perennially deficit zones like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc.
The massive retirements every month is also taking a toll on the customer service of the bank branches as fresh recruitments are not
taking place to address this issue.
Present Ceiling of 3% of
net profits to be increased to 5% of Operating profit without any ceiling.
Suitable
Life Cover should be taken for
normal as well as accidental
death.
This
is available in few Banks
but there is no uniformity.
In view
of the increase in cost of construction of house and flats, we need to have a comprehensive and uniform review of House Building
Advance to officers by banks. In view of the rising prices and the
revision of salary of officers following 8th Joint Note, all banks should enhance the limit to minimum Rs.1 crore at simple rate of interest without any
slab, which can be repaid up
to the age of 75.
In this regard, the rate of interest has been hovering around Nil to 8 percent in different banks. The first
concessional rates of interest on housing term loans
for staff was introduced way back in
1967 with Nil interest. In 1979, the amount was increased
to Rs.1,10,000/-
at the rate of 5% simple interest. The rate was around 8% less than the rate of interest
charged to public
housing term loans, which
was prevailing at 13%. Hence, at that point of time the
spread was 8 percent.
However, with the advent
of competitive interest
rate regime and MCLR based lending, the interest rate for public has been reduced considerably and many other facilities are being extended to public. We feel that officers
should have the same facilities and provisions for Staff Housing as applicable
to general public. The spread
has been given a go by and different
banks are charging at different rate of interest.
Housing Term Loan is a welfare measure providing shelter to the
family members of the employee. Hence, the rate of interest
should be maintained at the same spread
as was obtaining in 1979, as
otherwise, due to the steep increase in the cost of land and construction, the employee would
be finding it difficult to service
the loan.
Following implementation of 8th Joint Note, the salary of officers have increased. All banks need to
enhance the
Staff Conveyance Loan uniformly to enable
to officers to afford energy efficient high end vehicles. The
Car loan Loan limit should be enhanced to
minimum Rs.15 Lakh and Two Wheeler Loan limit to Rs.1 lakh at simple
rate of interest without any slab. The repayment of the above
loans should be extended upto 75 years
of age.
In view of
All India transferability of officers,
the Road tax on vehicles of different
States should be paid by
the bank on inter-state transfers.
Those who were
born on the 1st of
a month to be retired
on the last day of the same month,
and not the previous
month.
The emoluments drawn
by an officer should be protected on his higher area to lower area.
The Banks should take the responsibility for shifting
the personal effects of the officers on transfer from one place
to another. Even if there is a change of posting in the same centre or in the
urban agglomeration, the officers should be reimbursed the full expenditure for
transportation of goods
in connection with change of residence/leased quarter/bank's quarter on actual basis.
To meet additional expenditure towards education of
children, housing etc., officers should be paid two months' salary to
compensate incidental expenses on
transfer. In case of
transfer
outside the Stale, 3 months' salary
should he rrnid
towards incidental expenses. In case of transfers lo far off centers mid the place; of inclement weather ancl living conditions. there has lo be higher compensation r1s
incidenl.11 expr.nd1l11rn on transfer
IMMUNITY FROM TRANSFER POLICY,
SPECIAL PRIVILEGES TO OFFICE· BEARERS OF THE ORGANIZATION:
In view ol lhe positive role
plityed hy lh Olhc:ms orHani1alions them is :J n ed
to
r 11is the existing arrangements
as mgnrds the s1wc:i,1l leave lo the office.he,ir rs (J( lh org:Jniz.:!tir.ins The existing arrangement is gro sly inmleq1rnte in comp:uison vlllh the si1.e
:Jnr1 lh grow1h of the banking industry. Particularly after
mergers/am.1lgamalions-and e11u:Jll1 lh m'!mb rship of the officers' organization - the structure of the org,ini1:Jtion and hAnr..e appropri te enhanceme_ntin the leave facility needs
1o he considered.
The senior
office-bearers of the
Officers· organizations should have run dut'/
relie m 111ew or th fact
that they are dealing
with all the HR matters relating lo the officers· fratemit'I 2J:t7i365 and ii is not possible for them attend to their normal
deskwork. This is the need of the hour to serJ the officers' fraternity, who are lhe driving force of lhe entire
industry.
The
Office-bearers
of Associations should be extended immunity from transfer/placement. Th Central /Slate level office-bearers shoul:J
be given duty-off on par Ylilh won<men organizations The facilily
is due for review.
DATE OF EFFECT:
01.11.2022
i
We reservei our r ghls to submit supplementary charter of demand /alter lhe demand ,f u,e
necessity ar ses,
(Soumya Datta) General Secretary AIBOC
Yours Sincerely,
•
Yj
\ ?/
(Prem Makker) General
Secretary
INBOC
ob--
\i dar h K N)
General Secret.Jr/
NOBO
-17
DISCIPLINARY AND VIGILANCE PROCEEDINGS NOTE ON FIVE DAY WORK WEEK
REGULATED WORKING HOURS
NOTE ON LFC NOTE ON OUTSOURCING
JUDGEMENT ON LEAVE ACCUMULATION
DISCIPLINARY & VIGILANCE PROCEEDINGS
ISSUES TO BE CONSIDERED
I.
Classification of Misconduct
II.
Abuse of the omnibus
conduct Rule Ill. Authority
for imposing Major Penalties
IV.
Definition of Moral Turpitude & amendment of B.R.A.
V.
Disposal of disciplinary cases & appeals
VI.
Copy of CVC/CVO advice
VII.
Provision of Personal Hearings
VIII.
Interpretation & Effect of Penalties
IX.
Debarment period
X.
Sanction of Prosecution/Arrest
XI.
Suspension & Subsistence Allowance
XII.
Defence Representatives- No. of pending cases
XIII.
Agreed List- LODI
XIV.
Jurisdiction of CAT
XV.
Proceedings after Retirement & Issuance of Charge Sheet
XVI.
Other issues
(i) CLASSIFICATION OF MISCONDUCT:
In the Officers Service
Regulations, Minor and
Major penalties have been classified, but
there is no classification of Minor and Major misconduct. Breach of any provision of the conduct rules
is to
be deemed as Misconduct. It is left to be decided
by the Disciplinary Authority
(in short DA) whether to initiate proceedings under Minor/Major penalty
clause thereby leaving scope for subjectivity.
In case of Award Staff and also Government employees, major and minor misconduct has been defined as a result one doesn't get major penalty
for a minor misconduct. In case of Officers, though a large number of cases of proceedings under major penalty end up in exoneration or award of a minor penalty depending upon gravity of misconduct
proved after enquiry but in very
many cases of minor misconduct, the officers end up getting a major penalty. Also, there are mental blocks in the minds of some DAs who think that if Major Penalty
proceedings are initiated, minor penalty or exoneration or withdrawal
of charge sheet etc. cannot be
done.
RECOMMENDATION
Minor and Major misconducts should be defined
with clear provision
that minor penalty
or exoneration may be awarded after conclusion of major penalty proceedings but major penalty cannot be imposed in cases of defined
minor misconduct.
Though
conduct rules have been elaborated in the Regulations, the regulations at the
same time contain an Omnibus Clause to fit the misconduct not specifically defined into
the omnibus clause. The tragic
reality is that in more
than 90-95% cases, the officers are booked under this Omnibus Clause. It proves
beyond doubt that where misconduct is specifically defined, violation is minimal.
But more importantly, it indicates that there is an unbridled tendency among the DAs
to abuse this provision and any conduct
is dubbed as misconduct by invoking this clause
which ought to be attracted in rare cases but which is applied
in an overwhelming number of cases. If this clause is annulled and instead if the vast variety of misconducts covered
under this clause over the last over
three decades are analyzed and specifically provided in the conduct rules,
it will lead to better compliance and minimal breach on the part of the officers.
In particular, what is unbecoming of a Bank Officer must be
explicitly stated in the conduct rules.
The omnibus clause in the conduct rules should be deleted.
As per
Article 311 of the Constitution of India, Disciplinary Authority for imposing
capital punishment should not be lower
than the Appointing Authority. Since
all capital punishments leading to cessation of service are classified under
major penalties, it automatically follows that for
imposing any major penalty, the Disciplinary Authority should not be lower in rank than the Appointing Authority. Though
this principle is followed in the Government and various other Organisations, including the State Bank of India, in nationalized Banks it is not being followed.
No Authority lower in rank to the Appointing Authority
should be competent to award major penalty.
Though
the term Moral Turpitude appear prominently in the Disciplinary &Conduct Rules and on a great
number of occasions, important decisions to proceed
against the Officers or to place
them under suspension have to be taken for the acts involving Moral Turpitude, it is a queer paradox that what constitutes Moral Turpitude has not been clearly or exhaustively defined either under law or in the conduct rules,
though there are various court judgments which to
some extent explain this term.
Existence of a general provision in the Banking
Regulation Act Section 10(1)(b)(i)
which states that no employee who is convicted by a court of law for an act involving moral turpitude can be continued in service enormously increases the need and
importance of defining
what is Moral
Turpitude, particularly in the context
of normal day to day bank work in order
that large number of bank officers do not become unwary
victims of
these
provision and suddenly
lose their job with no recourse available or a reasonable hope of reclaiming the lost job due to a
painfully slow
and exasperating legal system and no provision for getting full back wages
if the conviction is set aside later
on. When the officer is convicted, he
is summarily discharged or even dismissed without holding enquiry etc but when
the conviction is
set-aside after proper trial, the
intervening period is at
best treated as deemed
suspension for payment of subsistence allowance only instead of
payment of back wages. In the Indian
Overseas Bank, even the subsistence allowance is not paid and this period
is treated as break
in service.
To
elaborate, the
gravity of prejudice suffered by Officers on account of this while performing
the normal day today duties in the bank can be seen
by the fact that Moral
Turpitude has been
defined thus in the American settled law:
Moral turpitude refers generally to conduct that shocks the public conscience. Offenses such as murder, voluntary man slaughter,
kidnaping, robbery and aggravated assaults involve moral turpitude. However,
assaults not involving dangerous weapons or evil intent
have been held not
to involve moral turpitude. Conviction of crimes
of moral turpitude may also disqualify someone from an employment opportunity. The precise definition of a crime
that involves moral turpitude isn't always clear, but
the above serious crimes only are always considered crimes of moral turpitude.
In terms of the above
and umpteen judgments given by
the courts in India, out of the above list bribery and frauds committed by an officer himself shall qualify to be acts involving
moral turpitude. But, it has
been seen that various normal and seemingly innocuous normal banking acts have been routinely covered by the trial courts under Section 120 B or section 420 IPC resulting in the discharge or dismissal of the officer. By the time the appeals are disposed off the officer might cross the normal retirement age and he neither gets back wages or any other
compensation for loss of employment.
RECOMMENDATION
Moral
Turpitude should be clearly defined in the conduct rules. In the banking
context, acts of accepting bribe or fraud on the part of the officer
himself should be considered the one
involving moral turpitude. Full
back wages should be paid if the officer is held to be innocent and his conviction is set aside after disposal
of appeal. During pendency
of the appeal, the officer
may be placed under suspension. Admission of appeal and/or stay against sentence should be deemed as stay against prosecution for the purpose of compliance of provisions of Banking Regulation Act since
the case is accepted for retrial. We should also demand
from the government Suitable
amendment to Sec. 10(1)(b)(i) of the Banking
Regulation Act.
(v) DISPOSAL OF DISCIPLINARY CASES & APPEALS:
It is laid
down in the special chapter of CVC Manual that no cognizance of the misconduct will be taken if the action of
the officer is more
than two Inspections or four year
old provided there is no fraud in which
case there will be no limitation of time. But charge sheet continues to be served even after lapse of 10 or more years. Further, though the maximum time permitted for service of charge sheet and for completion of
disciplinary proceedings are laid down, in practice, it is rarely adhered
to. The time for filing
of an appeal against decision
of the disciplinary authority as also the time for disposal thereof
are laid down in the said chapter. Though, limitation of time is insisted
upon for filing
of the appeal and delay in filing
is rarely condoned, the time limit
for disposal of the appeal
is rarely adhered to and disposal of appeals in many cases is delayed for years together.
Consequently, the officers continued
to suffer particularly when they are under suspension or when cessation
of service
has been effected.
It is recommended that the laid down instructions
should be meticulously
followed and
no fault should be found with
the act of the officer after 2
Inspections have taken place
or a period of four year has expired. Further,
if the charge sheet is not served
within the stipulated period of three
months or if the entire proceedings are not completed within the stipulated time of six months as provided in the Vigilance
Manual, the suspension of the officer
should be automatically revoked with back wages and in case the
proceedings are not completed even within a period of one year,
the case should
be deemed to have been concluded in officer's favour and he be
deemed to have been exonerated.
In case,
the charge sheet is not filed by CBI within
the time limit of 90 days, bail is automatically granted but same principle is not applied for revocation
of suspension. It is recommended that in such cases, suspension should be revoked
without prejudice to the decision
of the Court case. Similarly, if the appeal
preferred by the officer is not disposed off within the stipulated period of three months, it should be deemed to have been allowed.
As per laid down instructions a copy of CVC advice
is required to be furnished to the delinquent
officer. In practice, however, it is observed that the authorities
simply provide the operative part of
the CVC advice
but the entire
correspondence between the Disciplinary Authority and CVC is not
made available which
defeats the very purpose
of the provision. Further, there is no system
of providing the advice of the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Bank where CVC jurisdiction
is not attracted. This distinction
is wholly unwarranted. The advice of CVO is at a lower footing
must be furnished when there is
explicit provision to provide the advice of the CVC. Recommendation.
The CVC/CVO
advice alongwith the entire correspondence should be made available. It is
further, recommended that the CVC/CVO
should only recommend category of penalty to
be imposed i.e. Major or Minor and not the specific punishment because in that
case he assumes the role of the Disciplinary Authority himself. Further, in case of appeal further
reference should not be made to CVC particularly
if the Appellate Authority proposes to give a lower punishment
within the same category already recommended by the CVC.
The disciplinary procedures have been gradually evolving
in favour of the charged
officer and in the
past some favourable changes have taken place like provision of enquiry, making available report of the Inquiring Authority to the charged officer so that he can argue against his findings, making available of copy of CVC advice
etc. But, an important provision
like grant of a personal hearing to the charged
officer before award
of the penalty has all along
been denied. As a result,
he does not get a chance to argue against
the proposed penalty
before hand so that
some
aspects of the case which
might have escaped
the notice of the Disciplinary Authority can be pointed out in good time and he will be able to take a more balanced and reasoned view. After the final decision is taken by
the DA, it becomes difficult to undo the injustice as there is general reluctance to correct the mistakes and the appeal system is also loaded against the employee. There is already a provision for grant of a personal
hearing to the workman
employees. Recently, the Hon'ble Supreme Court
has decided in a case related to State Bank of India Officer that
while deciding
the appeal the Appointing Authority must
give a personal
hearing. By that logic, the DA should also give personal hearing to the officer. The same logic should hold good
for review petition as well. This provision is also
there in the rules applicable to officers working in the Govt. of India.
RECOMMENDATION
The DA should take a tentative decision and grant a personal hearing to the charged officer along with his Defence Representative before taking a final decision.
The same procedure should be adopted by the Appellate Authority / Reviewing Authority while disposing off the
appeal of the officer.
(viii) INTERPRETATION & EFFECT OF PENALITIES:
While
the minor penalties are simple and easily understandable, some of the major
penalties are very technical and cannot be easily understood
by the charged officer and even most of the Competent Authorities. At times
promotion of the officer is withheld when no promotion
is actually due to him. This results in undue prolongation of the rigour of the penalty which might not have
been the intention of the DA and the penalty though minor in effects
become harsher then a major penalty. Likewise, penalty of recovery of loss is a minor penalty and logically a symbolic recovery of small sum should be effected
but at times it is clubbed with a major penalty and amount of recovery runs into several lakh of rupees
eg. a penalty of 'removal of service' with recovery
of Rupees Two lakh ! Further, when an officer is reverted to a lower grade, the reversion is taken as a permanent reversion unless the officer re-qualifies and earns
back the promotion, whereas in
government reversion is for a period of
two years whereafter the officer is placed back in the higher scale
from where he was reverted. It is also a practice to give more than one penalty like reversion to lower or the lowest grade coupled with reduction in pay etc.
RECOMMENDATION
CCA Rules should be followed in this
respect in
the banks
also.
(ix) DEBARMENT PERIOD:
Debarment Rules are different in different banks. In some banks, there is no debarment when minor penalty is awarded while in some
others debarment period extends to 15-20 years also. No debarment period is stipulated in case of the penalty awarded
is Reversion to a lower grade whereas in case of Govt. employees debarment period of reversion is defined. In some organizations, when criminal proceedings are pending
whether for misconduct pertaining to Bank or some other criminal misconduct, result of the officer
is held in sealed
cover throughout the pendency of criminal proceedings which sometime run for 8-10 years also and sometime
beyond the normal retirement date as well.
RECOMMENDATION
In case of minor
penalty, there should
be no rigor and no debarment for promotion and results if any
placed in the Sealed Cover
should be given
effect to. The maximum
debarment / rigor for a
major penalty should not be more than one year.
There are different rules
in different banks.
The authority empowered to sanction Prosecution of an officer always acts under the influence / pressure of the
CBI / CVO and is not permitted to act
independent. Further, while provision has been made for obtention of sanction
of the Competent Authority before launching prosecution against the officer
but no such provision has been made to
obtain similar sanction before arresting the officer.
The
power to sanction Prosecution of an officer should be vested in his Appointing Authority. The ground
rules should be laid down for giving sanction for prosecution and the Appointing Authority or the Disciplinary
Authority should be given a free hand to act independently. Once he declines
to give sanction, he becomes
a functus officio and sanction
cannot be sought unless fresh evidence is presented
before him. A provision should also be incorporated to obtain sanction of
the Appointing Authority before arresting the officer.
Though the instructions
provide that an officer
will not be placed under suspension before investigation, in practice frequent
deviations are made.
Ground rules for ordering suspension of an officer are
seldom followed. Suspensions are mostly
effected as a knee jerk reaction
and is invariably behind the back of the officer
without giving him any hearing. In most cases the option of transferring the officer instead
is not even considered. Once the officer
is placed under suspension, there is virtually
no review thereof. Review
mechanism is totally absent.
Review is generally on the papers and in almost
all the cases
reinstatement of the officer
takes place only after the proceedings are concluded and final order
is passed. At the time of passing
final order, the DA is niggardly in his treatment
of the suspension period. In case of arrest of an officer, there is provision of deemed suspension after 48 hours of the arrest but
there is no simultaneous
provision of a deemed reinstatement after he is acquitted. There are different rules about payment of subsistence allowance
in the government, in the award
staff within the banking industry and within the different banks.
The Disciplinary Authorities evince a tendency
of a corseted mindset in the matter of treatment of suspension
period while passing final speaking
order. It has been seen that
except in cases where the officer has been exonerated, suspension
period is treated as such irrespective of the gravity of the penalty
awarded and nothing
more than the subsistence allowance already paid is paid
at the time of reinstatement which is grossly
unfair. Benefit of Annual increment also is not given even for calculation of
the subsistence allowance.
Ground
rules of suspension must be meticulously followed. Suspension of an officer prior to completion of investigation should not be effected. The option to transfer
the officer to a distant place instead of placing him under suspension should
be mandatorily considered as it is good for the officer as well as
Bank. In the rare case where
suspension of an officer is the only
choice, the officer should be given an opportunity
to show cause before placing
him under suspension. Review of suspension should be regular and meaningful. Suspension should
not be
continued after investigation completed since the accused officer
would not then be in a
position to tamper with the evidence or influence the witnesses. In case, the bank or the
Investigating agencies fail to serve the charge sheet within the time stipulated in the Vigilance Manual or the proceedings
are not concluded within the given time frame the officer should be reinstated. In case
of detention beyond a given period or conviction by a Court,
there is a provision for Deemed
suspension of the officer. Similar
provision of deemed
reinstatement needs to be provided
in cases where regular
bail is granted
or when the conviction is set aside.
The rate of Subsistence Allowance should be uniform.
For the first three months
half the salary and allowances should be paid
and after six months, which is the period
provided for completion of proceedings, subsistence allowance equivalent to full salary
and allowances should be paid.
If the
disciplinary proceedings conclude in the imposition of the minor penalty, the suspension ought to be held as totally
unjustified as already held by the
Hon'ble Supreme Court , and full back wages should be paid. The Committee was of the view that barring the cases where the penalty awarded is cessation of service, full salary for the suspension period should be paid as there is no justification to continue suspension after the initial
few months when investigation
is conducted.
Notional annual increment should
be taken into account for the purpose
of calculating subsistence allowance and if salary
revision is taking place during the period of suspension, arrears should be
paid for the period prior to date of suspension and enhanced subsistence allowance
from the date
of suspension should be paid.
The position is not uniform. In all the Nationalized Banks,
Defence Assistants/Counsels are allowed
to have 2 pending
cases at any point of time as against 3 cases laid down in the
CVC Manual. Only in State Bank of India 3
pending cases are allowed.
Further, though there is restriction of 2/3 cases for the Defence
Assistants/Counsels there is no such restriction for the Presenting Officer or the Inquiring Authority. There are also
different provisions in this regard for officers and award staff. Whereas, in case of officers only serving officer is
allowed to defend in case of workmen any office bearer of a registered Trade Union whether
retired or serving and whether belonging to same or different
bank is allowed to defend the charge sheeted employee. This distinction/ discrimination is
wholly unwarranted.
Further, retired officers should be permitted to
act as Defence Assistant/Counsel.
There should
be no restriction on the number
of cases to be taken up by any defence representative as in
the case of Presenting Officer/
Inquiring Authority
so that the Officers are not deprived off the assistance of trained persons who are not
easily available and particularly
because officers are not allowed to take the assistance of lawyers, there is a strong case for allowing the retired officers of the bank
to give this service to the officers
of his parent bank.
This
list of officers whose honesty / integrity
is taken to be doubtful is prepared at
the back of the officers and in many
cases it is not as per the letter
and spirit of the laid down
norms. Even where after enquiry
the fraudulent motive is not proved and the penalty awarded is not so serious and where
acquittal is more or less on merit,
names of officers
are kept in the LODI and
cases are not scarce when officers are unnecessarily put under watch
by placing their names in the agreed list and the officers concerned do not even come to know about it because
the sensitive and non sensitive
positions are interchangeable. The list
of sensitive positions has been exhaustibly drawn up by including a large number of assignments which are not sensitive at all. This result into under
utilization of talent and experience and
in many cases officer not actually placed in the agreed
list when posted
to these assignments get an impression that their integrity
are under watch. Recommendation
There is a need to revisit
the issue and carefully draw the list of sensitive
assignments. The officers whose names are placed in LODI / Agreed list should be informed so
that they can at least make a representation to the Competent
Authority to review their decision.
The laid
down period of three years / one year for keeping the name in LODI and Agreed List respectively
should
be adhered and not prolonged. On expiry thereof,
name should be automatically deleted from the list.
The
Central Administration Tribunals were first established
in the year 1985 with the laudable objective
of reducing the burden on the various
Courts and reduce pendency as also to provide the persons covered by these
tribunals a speedy and relatively less expensive and effective remedy. The Tribunals have served the declared
objective to a great extent but only the employees of the Central
Govt. and other notified organizations are covered.
Bank employees have not been brought within the jurisdiction of these tribunals
so far even though banks are now owned by the Government. As a result the bank employees are suffering enormously as they are at the mercy of
the bank management and do not get justice in most
of the cases. The handling of the cases in the banks
is highly subjective, perfunctory and whimsical. However, the bank
employees in general and officers in
particular keep suffering and do not in most cases approach the Court
of Law because of the huge
cost and delays involved.
Since the tribunals are working
satisfactorily and have now
come to stay and through these the working class is able to
get speedy and less expensive adjudication of disputes in respect of recruitment and condition of services as also the employees are able to challenge instances of gross miscarriage of justice in disciplinary matters
where Principles of natural justice are violated at will by the Disciplinary / Appellate authorities. We strongly recommend that special administrative tribunals for bank
officers and employees should
be set up by the government.
The provisions in the Service Rules
that Disciplinary proceedings may be continued after retirement of the officer
was kept to take care of the situations
where some fraud or gross misconduct is committed
shortly before the superannuation of
the officer. However, in practice
this provision is grossly misused and
even abused to stall / stop the normal retirement of the officer by digging out some act of misconduct
committed years before the date of retirement
and charge sheets are issued on the very eve of the actual retirement. Cases are not lacking where the alleged misconduct was discovered years before the retirement date but the proceedings like
investigation, preliminary explanation
etc proceed at snails pace and actual charge sheet is issued when the officer is on the eve of his retirement by invoking the provision to keep him in bank's service for the limited purpose of completing the departmental
proceedings. Resultantly, his retiral benefits are withheld and the officer
is made to undergo
all sorts of stigma and social ignominy. Out of sight is out of mind. Once the officer is not on the rolls, the proceedings progress
at even slower pace and the officer
keeps suffering for years on
end.
Government instructions to put up such cases at least one year before retirement and these should be subjected to quarterly
review by an authority no less than
the CEO himself are not being adhered to.
It should be clearly provided that this particular
rule can not be applied
for misconduct which is more than say one year old at the maximum.
Further, this rule 19 (3), 20(3) in some banks
should not be invoked in the last quarter unless some fraud /
act of misappropriation has been unearthed. It should
be further provided that if the proceedings are not completed within three,
or at the maximum six months of the date of superannuation, the retrial benefits
will be released. Even when this rule is invoked
and officer is retained in service for the purpose
of completion of proceedings, the amount of leave encashment, which is not a retrial
benefit, should not be withheld.
Further, such officers
are being paid provisional
pension so that the organization is not legally
called upon to pay salary
for the period,
proceedings remain pending. Provisional commutation value should also be paid. Similar
relief should be provided to officers who are not pension optees.
Since
criminal proceedings takes a long time to conclude
and even if decided,
against the officer result in award of a sentence under the law,
it should not affect the promotion and / or retirement of the officer, if it is not related to misconduct pertaining to official
banking transactions.
As in the case of government
employees and as per the provisions of the CCA
Rules on which the bank officers disciplinary
rules are also based, all the management
documents must be accompanied with the charge sheet
and additional documents
should not be allowed to be
presented by the prosecution side unless so agreed by the charged officer since presentation of
additional documents in case of government employees is taken
as amendment to the charge sheet itself. The existing
rules about amendment of charge
sheets may be reviewed.
The Personnel Committee discussion note
should be pursued for its
implementation.
This strategy
paper intend to manifest and illustrate the trends and developments in both hours of work and the organization of working time (working time arrangements)
and considers their implications for the future of work.
Since the Industrial Revolution there has been a downward
trend in hours of work (in those countries with longitudinal data on working hours), which
moved in tandem with increases in wages and productivity
- creating a virtuous cycle. A
comprehensive and deep analysis of the "Indian banking industry", will reveal
akin tendency.
In the recent two decades, however,
this trend has ceased or even reversed
in some industries, especially in the banking sector in our country.
This has been accompanied by a bifurcation
of working
hours, with substantial
portions of the workforce working
excessively long hours (more than 48 hours per week),
which affects the health and social life of bank
employees.
Regarding the organization of working time, even though there has been a diversification in working time arrangements, with a movement away from the standard workweek consisting of fixed working hours each day for a fixed number
of days and towards various
forms of "flexible"
working time arrangements
(e.g. new forms of shift work, hours averaging, flexi-time arrangements, compressed workweeks, Work from Home) along with demands for
extended and even 24/7 availability, with widely divergent effects depending on the specific arrangement, the banking sector
in our country still remains poor and inferior in adopting such work arrangements.
Further critical
emerging issue regarding
the working time concerns the impact of new
information and
communications technologies (New ICTs), such as smartphones and tablet
computers, which enable constant
connectivity. These New ICTs have resulted in a blurring of the boundaries between paid working time and both the times and
spaces that are normally reserved for personal life.
We intend
to raise a question as to whether,
given the impacts
of recent technological developments on employment, the
resumption of the historical trend towards an overall reduction of working hours has become an economic
and a social imperative in the Indian
Banking Sector. This require public policies consented by MoF & DFS promoting the reduction
of working hours, as well as some basic guarantees regarding "regulated working hours" for
those working excessively above the industrial norm. Such policies need to be combined with both policies and practical guidance regarding how to develop
balanced working time arrangements that ensure minimum
periods of rest, including paid leave, and can benefit both workers and enterprises.
History
The first
international labour standard, the ILO Hours
of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1),
had already enshrined a long-sought trade union objective, the eight-hour workday,
into international law, alongside a
48-hour weekly limit on working time -
a radical
notion at a time when 60-plus hour
workweeks were still common everywhere.
The adoption of the ILO
Forty-Hour Week
Convention, 1935 (No. 47) reflected the
spirit of the times. Only two decades after the adoption of the 48-hour week,
there was already a building consensus regarding
the principle
of a five-day workweek with two consecutive
days of rest.
National
labour laws on working time have largely followed the international standards, such that the 40-hour
workweek is now the most common national standard for normal weekly hours of work - and the dominant
standard in the developed world -
while
the 48-hour workweek remains common in
developing countries. (ILO,
2018a).
As the Second World War was drawing to a close in 1944, the ILO convened its annual conference in Philadelphia and adopted the Declaration of Philadelphia, which boldly
asserted that "all human beings, irrespective of race, creed
or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being
and their spiritual development
in conditions of freedom
and dignity, of economic security, and equal opportunity"
(Article 2(a)). In other words, work is about
more than just meeting material
needs; people also need to have the opportunity for fulfilling personal lives as well. And in the
period of prosperity following the Second World War, the international
consensus around the reduction
of working
hours towards the "social standard" of the 40-hour workweek - based on the country's level of development - continued to build, culminating in the adoption of the ILO Reduction
of Hours
of Work Recommendation, 1962
(No. 116).
August 20, 1866:
A newly formed organization named the National Labour Union asked Congress
to pass
a law mandating the eight-hour workday. Though their efforts
failed, they inspired Americans
across the country to support labour reform over the next few
decades.
May 1, 1867:
The Illinois legislature
passed a law mandating an eight-hour workday. Many employers refused to cooperate, and a massive strike erupted in Chicago. That day became known as "May Day."
May 19, 1869:
President Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation that guaranteed a stable wage and an eight
hour workday - but only for government
workers. Grant's decision encouraged private-sector workers to push for the same rights.
1870s and 1880s:
While
the National Labour Union had dissolved, other organizations including the Knights
of Labour and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions continued to demand an eight-hour workday. Every year on May Day, strikes and demonstrations were organized to bring awareness to the issue.
May 1, 1886: Labour
organizations called for a national strike in
support of a shorter workday. More
than 300,000 workers turned out across the country. In Chicago, demonstrators fought with police over the next few days. Many on both sides were wounded or killed in an event that's now known as the "Haymarket Affair."
The Bayview
massacre occurred on May 5th, 1886, in Wisconsin, U.S. On this day, the workers
set off in the direction of the iron-steel enterprise demanding an 8-hour working day, gathering about 1,500 strikers from all over Milwaukee. During
this period, the workers had about six working days, and they worked 10-12
hours on average. The workers
did not agree to pay cuts at the expense of reduced hours,
which was unacceptable to many
employers. That day, the enterprise was guarded by the militia fortified at an elevated spot near its entrance.
The
armed forces warned the marchers before they approached the enterprise;
however, as the march did not stop, the militia used their weapons and opened
fire on the protesters. The actions of the militia were followed by the dispersal
of the protesters. Nonetheless, the protest was unsuccessful, and their idea of
reducing working hours was only implemented by Franklin
Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s.
It is important to note that the protesters did not demand
a 5-day working
week. Their main focus was daily working
hours.
The US
government began tracking workers' hours. The average workweek for full-time manufacturing employees was a whopping 100 hours.
September 3, 1916:
Congress
passed the Adamson Act, a federal law that established an eight-hour workday for interstate railroad workers. The Supreme Court constitutionalized the act in 1917.
Saturday &
Sunday - History of Weekends
The first change in the United States took place in 1908 when an employer in New England offered employees a two-day
weekend to enable
Jews to follow
religious procedures. Also prominent in this regard is the American businessman and car manufacturer Henry Ford, who offered his employees not only a 5-day
workday, but also a 40-hour workweek, and in this respect became an
important figure in establishing the tradition
of weekends. It is important to note that
Ford's idea was well-received by others because they understood why a 5-day workweek was important to their employees.
With this idea, businessmen
tried to conserve
the energy of their employees to maintain their enterprises
constantly active.
September 25, 1926:
Ford
Motor Companies adopted a five-day, 40-hour workweek.
June 25, 1938:
Congress passed the
Fair Labour Standards Act,
which limited the workweek to 44 hours.
June 26, 1940:
Congress amended the Fair Labour Standards Act, limiting the workweek to 40 hours.
The Fair Labour Standards Act went into effect.
Literature review
La Valle et al., (2002)1 studied on happy
families and described working long hours as a key contributor for mounting pressures
on fathers in particular and family in general.
Major et al.(2001)2 found too that long work hours are correlated with
increased work-family conflict and indirectly leads towards psychological sufferings. They also concluded strong positive relationships between
work hindrances with family and work overload and organizational expectations for time given at work place.
Parasuraman et al. (1996)3 did study on work and family
variables, entrepreneurial career success, and psychological wellbeing. Among many findings, one of the significant finding
was that male gave more time at work corresponding to time given
to family when compared to female
counterpart. Moreover, work overload and inflexible
working hours were correlated to increasing time commitment at work. Time commitment to work was directly connected
to stress in life. It is reality that sometimes employers simply forget
about the lives of their employees beyond the workplace
and subsequently the difficulties they have to face at home.
Saffer and Lamiraud (2012)4 described that increasing
the number of hours at work per capita
from last 30 years has formed an
intuitively believable
perception that now less time is given
for social relationships. Linden et al., (1991).Number of factors like more demanding
work, social
support have been considered to be linked
to coronary heart disease in epidemiological studies. Less social support is causing more heart rates along with blood pressure.
Batt and Valcour (2003)5 suggested that work-life
balance practices together with the policies and practices of human resources
led towards the most appropriate handling of work-family conflict and to turnover. Human resources practices like work redesign and
giving incentives for motivation and
commitment.
Stress magnifies
a person's susceptibility to infection, disease,
and even death
(Dragos & Tanasescu, 2010; Uehata, 2005)
The stress associated
with overwork elevates blood pressure, lowers immune system function, and causes other
bodily system changes, which may result in sudden death syndrome (Ke, 2012)6. Thus, a Japanese term, karoshi
was coined to refer to
overwork death,
which is defined
as the "extreme acute result of acute cardiovascular events including stroke" (Ke, 2012).
The literature review
conducted by Ke (2012)
revealed several risk factors for karoshi
including holiday duty, increased hours of overtime
work, night shift work, and working in a new position
geographically separated from family
members. Several specific
aspects of the Japanese
culture of work and ethics
linked to long hours make it an ideal testing
ground for reduced working hours. As early as 1987, the Labour Ministry of Japan officially recognized karoshi as a
cause of death (Edlin & Golanty,
2012).
EFFECTS OF WORKING HOURS ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH (OSH), WORK-LIFE
BALANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFORMANCEThe length or volume of working hours - particularly excessively long hours of work - can have important consequences for both workers and enterprises. The adverse consequences of long hours stem
from disturbances in individuals' sleep, biological rhythms, and family and social
life, which in turn have negative
effects on their level of
fatigue and their mood,
and ultimately on their health, safety and performance at work {Tucker and Folkard,
2012).
An increasing body of
empirical evidence underlines the adverse effects of regular long working hours (defined as more than 48 hours
or more than 50 hours per week depending on the specific study) on human health and workplace safety.
Multiple studies regarding
health agree that the negative effects of regular long working hours
include both short-
and long-term effects. Acute reactions involve physiological responses such as increased
levels of fatigue, stress and sleeping
disorders, as well as unhealthy
lifestyle habits such as smoking, alcohol abuse, irregular diet and
lack of exercise. Long- term effects include an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal and
reproductive disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, chronic infections and mental illnesses {Tucker and Folkard, 2012; see also NIOSH, 2004 and
Spurgeon, 2003).
In addition to these health implications, it is clear
that work schedules which regularly involve extended hours decrease
workplace safety, as the risk of occupational accidents rises with increasing length
of the work schedule -
which
is also costly for enterprises (see e.g. Johnson and Lipscomb, 2006).
Excessively long weekly hours of work are positively associated with chronic
effects of fatigue, leading to health problems such
as cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, and even higher mortality rates (e.g. karoshi in Japan). Long weekly hours
are also positively
associated with poorer mental health status, i.e. higher rates
of anxiety, depression and sleep disorders (Afonso, Fonseca and Pires, 2017)7. Recent
results from a study in the United States tracking chronic disease
risks from exposure to long-hours work
schedules over a 32-year period clearly showed that regularly
working long hours for a long period is significantly associated with elevated risks of heart disease,
non-skin cancer, arthritis
and diabetes. The observed risk was
much higher among women than among men (Dembe and Yao, 2016)8. Because women's health may be
disproportionately affected by working long hours, employers should consider specific
policies to help women better
manage the demands of combining work and family, and thereby help them
maintain good health (ibid.). In addition, research results from Japan suggest that working long hours during
the first trimester of pregnancy is associated
with spontaneous abortion
and premature birth (Takahashi,
2014). Factors such as autonomy, high job demands, external pressure to work overtime, and low rewards (e.g. lack of overtime premia) mediate the
relationship
between overtime work and occupational health and safety. In general, however, reducing excessively long working hours is
likely to result in positive effects on occupational safety and health.
Long
weekly hours (more than 48 hours per week) are also associated with reduced levels of reported work-life balance and increased work-family
conflict (Fagan et al., 2012). Long working
hours pose particular problems for work-life balance if they are involuntary
and inflict negative effects on workers'
private lives and well-being. Fagan et
al. (2012) review a number of studies that have identified long
working hours as an important
predictor of
work-life conflict, and they
conclude that work-family incompatibility, less engagement in community and civic life, and lower fertility rates are all common outcomes of excessively long hours of work. Work life imbalances may
also reduce mental well-being, resulting
in stress, anxiety, and lower job and life satisfaction. Thus, reductions in long hours
are likely to improve workers' work- life balance and may
also increase their life satisfaction, which is also known
as "happiness", mainly in the economics
literature (Hamermesh, Kawaguchi and Lee, 2014).
Finally, it is widely
believed that long working hours result in high productivity, but this is actually
a myth. In fact, longer hours of
work are generally associated with lower unit labour productivity, while
shorter hours of work are linked with higher productivity. Working excessively long hours on a regular
basis has been shown to reduce hourly
productivity due to greater fatigue, and those workers with long hours and/or heavy workloads report decreasing job satisfaction and motivation and also higher rates of
absenteeism and staff turnover (Golden,
2012).
Likewise, countries with long hours of work often have relatively low unit labour productivity. For example, comparing several OECD countries, an ILO
analysis found that the relationship between
the number of hours worked annually per person and labour productivity
(measured as GDP per hour worked) was strongly negative (ILO, 2009).
A recent analysis of the relationship
between working hours and labour
productivity using historical data on munitions workers (Pencavel, 2014) found
that, above a specific hours threshold (in this case, 49 hours), output rises at a decreasing
rate as hours increase - an empirical
demonstration of the phenomenon of declining marginal productivity. Pencavel
links this finding with the recent OSH literature showing that long working hours
are correlated with an increased risk of accidents and illnesses, which
also increases costs
to enterprises (see also
Tucker
and Folkard, 2012).
The research
paper9, Comparative study of the social
effects of 5 and 6 days' work on
individuals with a main agenda to study the impact of work life on social life between two categories of people working
for 5 days and 6 days a week, on both males
and females, has demonstrated interesting statistics,
depicted hereunder for a better comprehension.
The study reveal that a six day
work week impact the social life of an employee and ravage the
psychological balance, emotional health and social
life of an individual.
Order of the Kerala State Human Rights Commission10
In an order by KSHRC, hearing
a case of suicide of a bank employee, the commission
observed that
"...the commission has reasons to believe that unlike in the past, the bank employees,
especially
the middle level officers, are confronting an host of issues, consequent to the
diversification
of activities in the banking sector, besides shouldering the
onus of running the establishments with Skelton
staff. The commission could not sit like a silent spectator when the
human rights of the employees are at stake, driving some of them to choose the extreme
step, succumbing to work
pressure
' suitable and long-lasting solution is to be evolved by the government in consultation
with all the stake
holders, that would greatly
safeguard the interest of the employees
in our state, including the measures to minimise the mental pressure and
enhance the mental strength of the staff members
who are pillars
of each and every institution without hurting the interest of the
management as well"
The human rights
commission further
observed that the issue is vexed, since any steps from the state government
will be ultra vires since the banking according to the Article
246 (Seventh Schedule) is in the "Union List".
BENEFITS OF FIVE-DAY WORK WEEK
1.
Employees enjoying
two days off per week can have sufficient rest. When returning to work, they
will be refreshed and work with greater
devotion.
2.
Employees
can spend more time for their families and
taking care of them. It can help them to relieve
stress from coping with work and
family commitments.
3.
Employees' travelling time and expenses
on commuting to and from the workplaces can be saved.
4.
For employees with fewer
family commitments, they can utilise their
days off for further
studies or to develop personal interests.
1.
Enhance company's efficiency: As employees can settle their
family matters during
their days off, they will be more dedicated to work, thus enhancing
their work performance and productivity. In turn, the company's efficiency and customer satisfaction
will
also be uplifted.
2.
Reduce
absence rate: A lower rate of absence
due to sickness or work accidents may be achieved
as employees
can be re-charged for work after sufficient rest.
3.
Enhance enterprise's competitiveness: Allowing employees to pursue
further studies or develop
personal interests helps elevate staff quality and competitiveness of the enterprise.
4.
Retain talents: A
five-day work week can foster employees sense of belonging to the enterprise,
thus facilitating staff retention, lowering staff turnover and reducing the time and resources for recruitment and training.
5.
Promote corporate
image: The measure can enhance the image of
the enterprise as a good employer
and create an
edge in attracting talents.
4 DAY WORK WEEK - A CONTEMPORARY STEREOTYPE
When,
the trade unions in our banking fraternity are campaigning, straining and tussling
with the negotiations between the Indian Banks Association and DFS, to introduce a 5 day work week in the banking
sector, the world is drawing on towards a more pragmatic, utilitarian and
sensible concept of 4 day work week.
As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are recognising that the new frontier for competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour, output-focused working is the vehicle to give them a
competitive edge.
More
than 3,300 workers at 70 UK
companies, ranging from a local chippy to large financial firms, start working a four-day week from Monday with no loss of pay in the world's
biggest trial of the new working pattern.11
The pilot is running for six months and is being organised
by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the thinktank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week
Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge
University, Oxford University and Boston College. The trial is based on
the 100:80:100 model 100% of pay for 80% of the time, in exchange
for a commitment to maintain
100% productivity. The 20th-century concept of a five-day working week is no longer
the best fit for 21st-century
business. A four-day week with no change
to salary or benefits will create a happier workforce and will have an equally
positive impact on business productivity, customer experience and social mission.
A good case study for the benefits of a four-day
workweek was done by Microsoft Japan in the summer of 2019. Employees
there worked four days a week while receiving
their normal five day pay check. The results that they saw speak for themselves.
They reported increased efficiency across the
business. Decreased electricity usage, fewer meetings held, and fewer pages printed helped contribute.
The company says this all resulted in a 40% productivity boost across the business
Source: Microsoft Japan (2019a)
From the case study of Microsoft
Japan, it was apparently evident
that lower work hours,
flexible working arrangements increased the productivity of employees by 40 percent
and concurrently reduced the no of employee days off, slashed
the establishment & operating
expenses (electricity, printing etc).
In 2022,
not-for-profit advocacy group 4 Day Week
Global launched a series of
six-month trials for companies in:
•
Ireland (17 companies, February to August);
•
the US and Canada (38 companies, April to October);
•
the United
Kingdom (UK) (70
companies with more than 3,300
employees, June to December); and
•
Australia and New Zealand (20 companies, August to February 2023).
Employees of participating companies will work one
less day a week with no reduction in pay. The UK pilot is the world's largest
trial of a four-day week to date. Since the COVID-19
pandemic, several governments have proposed and launched four-day working week trials:
•
Scotland announced it is putting
£10 million towards
a trial, as part of its promise
to pursue a wellbeing economy.
•
Spain announced a voluntary, nationwide, three-year trial of a 32-hour workweek.
•
The Japanese
government's 2021 annual economic policy guidelines recommended that companies
allow their workers to
opt for
a four day work week, as
part of
an initiative aimed at improving
work-life balance in the country.
•
Belgium allowed employees the ability to request a four-day work week through
the compression of their 38-hour week.
•
Prime Ministers
Jacinda Ardern12 of New Zealand and
Sanna Marin13 of Finland have each
proposed a four-day work
week as a consideration.
Major trial results
1.
Two trials in Iceland
between 2015 and 2019 in which working
hours were reduced to 35 hours a week without pay reduction for
2,500 workers resulted in "dramatically increased" well-being, no decline
of productivity or service, and improved work-life balance
and stress ratings from employees.
2.
Microsoft
Japan conducted a trial four-day
work week in summer
2019, granting workers paid leave on Fridays.
At the same time it cut the length
of most meetings from a full hour to half an hour, and capped attendance at five employees. For the duration
of the trial, the company
reported a 23% reduction in electricity costs.[58] Sales per employee increased 40% during the last year's same period.
PROPOSAL
A
considerable amount of discussions had already been held with Indian Banks Association and DFS in the context of regulating the working hours of officers and introducing
a five day work week in the
Indian Banking System.
From
the facts foregoing, it is
conclusively evident, that the various researches and case studies across the globe reveal that
the prolonged working hours seriously affect the mental health of employees, destroy the work life balance & drastically
reduce the productivity, and concurrently increase the operating expenses of the banks leaving a toll on the profit
fetched.
Whereas,
as a consequence of enormous
work pressure
and coercion
of bank managements, many employees
especially the officers are persuasively spending nearly 12-14 hours in the bank,
sacrificing their life,
family and their
personal space, landing
in distress and torments. The bank officers are even forced to work on holidays and they are hence
deprived of their fundamental right to live
a life of dignity.
A
research paper on "Work
Pressure and Employee
Involvement in State Bank of lndia"14 by the professors of Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram clearly establish that there is
an inverse relationship between the work pressure and employee
involvement.
It also observes and records that "Employees are human beings not a physical asset. Majority of the superiors treat
their subordinates
just like a physical asset I machine. They did not consider the mental and physical
capacity or feelings of the subordinates. Many of these categories believe
that Work pressure
is a positive aspect
of life and work. As per this, superiors give heavy instructions and guidelines, challenging work
standards, risky targets and deadlines that push the employees towards
great depression and worst performance. This will also negatively affects the growth
of market share and profitability
of the organization."
It is time
that the bank employees shall be treated as humans, and not as just
physical assets. The aspect
of Humanity is amiss
in most banks, when it comes to dealing with human assets.
The threat of transfers and departmental proceedings are muffling the protest voices
of officers, who are slipping into depression and finally resorting to the extreme step of committing suicide.
Hence, for the sake of the physical and mental
well being of the employees and for an increased
productivity, better business growth, reduced occupational
hazards, and the accompanying environmental benefits, we propose
1.
That the working hours of officers shall be regulated from 9.45 AM to 5.30 PM
2.
That the five day week shall
be introduced in the banking
sector declaring all Saturdays as Holidays.
3.
That Flexible working arrangements
shall be introduced in the form of shifts,
work from home etc.
The
International Labour Conventions have provided
for regulation of working hours. In USA, average working hours is 33 hours in five days. In Australia it is 35 hours. In France, it is 30 hours and in Netherlands 27 hours in
a week. In France working
after 6 o'clock is banned
and in
some countries workers who work
beyond 8 hours do not get insurance coverage. It is interesting to recall that way back in 1928 John Maynard Keynes predicted
that with technological advancement a work week will come down to 15 hours within 100 years.
A study
of the American Journal of Epidemiology found that those who worked 55 hours per week performed poorly on some mental tasks than those who worked 40 hours per week.
Regulated
working hours has been a long
standing demand of the officers in
the banking industry. The Joint
representations made by the four officers' organizations during 6th, 7th and 8th Joint note exercises bore certain developments. But, with the reduction in employees' strength due to embargo on
recruitment due to PCA imposed on banks, the work load of serving officers
have increased manifold.
Nearly 25% to 30% of bank branches
of different Banks are managed by single officers
where it is impossible to complete the work within the stipulated working
hours. Today, it has become common
for officers to work
from 9 am to 9 pm,
which stands way above the standard norm of 48 hours in a week practised in many developed countries. With the introduction
of Clearing
Grids, RBI has reduced the number of holidays
and practically
those who are working in the clearing system have to compulsorily work late and also on holidays. Moreover,
the Government frequently is assigning
tasks to banks for which bank branches have to be kept open on Sundays and holidays. Recently, all bank branches were asked to be kept open for the LICI IPO on 8th May 2022. The National Lok Adalats are also
conducted on 2nd and 4th Saturdays. All these lead to acute fatigue among the officers' fraternity and which in
turn lead to reduction
in the
productivity of the officers too.
It is worthwhile to mention that all banks are experiencing
an increase in attrition rate of Direct
Recruited Officers (ORO)
and Probationary Officers
(PO). It is common knowledge that the root cause of severance is the extended
working hours and requisition of services
on almost every Sunday and holiday.
Most of the Government Offices and Enterprises work from 10 am to 5 pm with half an hour lunch break
making it practically 6 ½ hours work. In the Banking Industry, the Reserve Bank of India has introduced regulated working
hours officially on 12th July 2012 along
with flexible timing. (CO HRMD Circular
No.G.28/240/04.01.14/2012-13). Even IDBI Bank has regulated working hours from 2009.
Hence,
it is imperative for us to bring regulated working
hours with a stipulation of 6 ½ hours work. In case of emergency where the
officer has to work beyond this they have to be compensated with one day compensatory off coupled with adequate monetary compensation.
As per the 7th Joint Note "Leave fare concession
was as follows:
1. During each block of 4 years
an officer shall be eligible
for leave travel concession for travel to his place of domicile
once in each block of 2 years.
Alternatively he may travel in one block of 2 years to his place of domicile and in another block of 2 years to any place
in India by the shortest route.
2. Alternatively an officer by exercising
an option any time during the four year block or
2 year block as the case may be surrender and encash his LTC other than travel to place of domicile" upon
which he shall be
entitled to receive an amount
equivalent to 100% of the eligible
fare for the class of travel by train to which
he is entitled upto a distance
of 4500 Kms(one way) for officers in JMG Scale I and MMG Scale II & Ill and 5500 Kms (
one way) for Officers in SMG Scale IV and above.
An Officer opting to encash his LTC
shall prefer the claim for himself/ herself
and his / her family members only once during the block / term in which such encashment
is availed off. The facility of encashment of privilege leave while availing of leave fare concession is also available
while encashing the facility
of LTC.
3.
The mode and class by which an officer
may avail of Leave Travel Concession shall be
the same as the
officer is
normally entitled to
travel on transfer and other terms and conditions subject to which the Leave Travel Concession may be availed of by an officer, shall
be as decided by the Board from time to time.
Provided
that w.e.f. 1st May 2010 an officer in Junior Management Grade Scale I while availing LTC will be entitled to travel by air in the lowest
fare economy class in which case the reimbursement will be the actual fare or the fare applicable to AC 1st Class fare by train for the distance travelled whichever
is less. The same rules shall apply when an officer in Middle
Management Grade Scale II and Middle Management Grade Scale Ill while availing LTC where the distance is less that 1000 kms.
During the last wage revision exercise,
the following 3 alternatives have been submitted to the IBA.
1.
To Continue to present scheme with provision to travel abroad
2.
To adopt the RBI scheme
3.
Monitory compensation instead of LFC reimbursement.
However, the entire
LFC paragraph was not incorporated
in the 8th Joint Note as the decisions like entitlement for Air fare/AC First Class could not be agreed upon and was to be referred to the
Management Committee. Incidentally, it
was agreed
during the
discussion that for
both spouses working in the same bank separate
LFC facility would be introduced, which was agreed for the workmen. However,
since the LFC para was not incorporated in the 8th Joint
Note, no bank has extended this benefit
for the officers. Despite repeated attempts, IBA has failed to issue any
advisory clarifying that both
spouses working in the same institution would be eligible
for separate LFCs, which is a travesty of justice.
We, therefore,
demand that for all such eligible cases,
retrospective LFCs have to be given to
officers and if required, LFC blocks to be extended.
Re-phasing of LFC Blocks: An officer to be permitted to avail LFC once in 2 years and HTC every year.
LFC Monetisation: Let us examine the RBI scheme, which is due for
revision shortly, inter alia provides an entitlement of
Rs.1,26,000/- for Grade A
to E. This amount has been
arrived at on the basis
of Air fare as on date, taking into account that 50% of the entitlement should go towards the Air fare. The RBI
scheme provides 50% or more out of the above entitlement towards Air fare and 25% towards local site seeing expenses without production of any evidence. In addition it provides for 15% incidental
expenditure towards travel by taxi / train / bus from home to the Airport, visa
charges, medical insurance premium etc. (originally it was 20%) The scheme
also provides for package tours organised by travel agents
approved by IATA. Even for package tours 15% incidental expenditures
is provided. The scheme also provides for 2 journeys in 4 years which can be either
2 sets of LFC or one LFC
and one Home travel. In case of encashment it provides for AC First Class fare for 4500 kms (one way)
Hence the above scheme which has also segregated foreign LFC and domestic
LFC should be made available to Bank Officers.
The entitlement for
NABARD officers is Rs 1,24,000/-, which
also is
due for
revision.
In case of monitory
compensation the
entitlement should be 1,40,000/-so that a 15% incidental expenditure is added. We produce herewith the actual flight fare which our
officers have recently claimed for their LFC.
Kolkata
Trivandram
Mumbai
Mumbai Mumbai
Dharmsala
Srinagar Dharamsala Pakyong Khushinagar
= Rs
60,500/-(one way);
Rs 1,21,000/- (return)
= Rs.49,320/-(one way) - 98,640/- (return)
= Rs 55, 937/-
(one way)
Rs 111874 (return)
= Rs 53,561/-(one way)
Rs 1,07,122/- (return)
= Rs 57, 320/-(one way)
Rs 1,14,640/- (return)
It will be advantageous to the Banks
to accept the RBI scheme
of LFC monetization with ceiling of entitlement as Rs. 150,000/- per person upto Scale
V.
The LFC
scheme for Award staff is enhanced by providing for AC 2 tier to clerical staff and o subordinate staff. Hence, to protect the dignity of officers,
all officers should be entitled for air travel for LFC, including officers in
JMGS-I cadre.
LFC facility for Visually impaired (Blind employees): Visually impaired (blind) employee to be permitted to take an escort (not more than one) for availing LFC. However,
the expenditure incurred
by him/her on own and escort's travel will be
to the extent of his/her
own entitlement by admissible class of travel
for the prescribed distance (This is in place in
RBI).
LFC facility for Terminally ill employees: Terminally ill employees to be permitted to take an escort (not more than one) for
availing LFC.
However, the expenditure
incurred by him/her on own and escort's travel
will be to the extent
of his/her own entitlement by admissible class of travel
for the prescribed distance
It is
worthwhile to
mention that it is an accepted fact that all banks are reeling under extreme
staff shortage. This been accentuated due to the imposition of PCA in several banks, which did not allow the banks to
recruit. In a written reply in Lok Sabha in December 2021 , Hon'ble Finance Minister Madam Nirmala Sitharaman has stated
that out of nearly 8,05,986
sanctioned posts in Public Sector
Banks, 41,177 positions
are vacant including
8544 in SBI. Instead of going for a recruitment drive,
all banks are outsourcing basic jobs by
hiring executives on contract
basis or engaging agencies to perform the work of officers. This rampant outsourcing which has proved
detrimental to the interest of the bank as there have been
multiple instances in recent years where banks had to face serious reputational
and financial debacles due to a third party's
(outsourcing agency) error or malafide
activities. Very often the frauds that
were perpetrated by personnel of these
agencies have ensnared hundreds of innocent officers into the disciplinary
net. We have also come across
instances of personal
information of customers have been pilfered and sold to our competitors
and fraudsters.
By engaging agencies to source business, the banks and
financial organizations in India have imported significant operational risks into the respective organisations, which resulted in serious financial losses and
reputational damage.
Banks now outsource
many of their jobs like ATM Management, Telebanking, Customers'
Complaints Redressal, Debit Cards and Credit Cards issuance,
P segment loan sourcing, verification
of residence of borrowers, IT returns, KYC documents, Billing, Records Maintenance, etc. to third parties.
Banks have been enlisting the services of private security guards for branches and ATMs though agencies, which
engage security personnel. The amount
of salary paid to these personnel are only a fraction of what they receive from banks.
The outsourced staff
themselves poses risks and threats
to the banks they are associated with.
There were so many incidents in the
past in every bank to prove this. There is no guarantee that the same set of people will be deployed
every day or even for a period of 6 months
continuously. Therefore, it
will be difficult to have an effective
surveillance on their movements and activities always.
There will be a great deal of uncertainty as to who performs what job.
Regular staff cannot be suddenly
asked to perform
the jobs outsourced on a regular basis. Since the agency pays them only a pittance, as compared to a regular staff
member doing the same or similar job, there will be no motivation and loyalty for the outsourced persons; just to leave aside the sense of
belongingness and loyalty
towards the organization.
We should
not forget the fact that ours is the
second most populated country in the world with great degree
of unemployment or under-employment. Hence,
it is a crime against
the society to deny employment opportunity to the millions of aspiring youth on a permanent basis. It also infringes
the objective of social justice by not adopting the reservation policy. The
gains accruing from employing people on a regular
basis far outweighs the gains/ savings arising out of outsourcing.
Further, it is also
significant to
note that Indian banks cannot
outsource core banking
functions to the third
parties. According to the guidelines on outsourcing of banking activities
issued by the Reserve Bank of India, banks also cannot outsource the core activities. RBI also made it very clear
that outsourcing does not diminish
the bank's obligations to customers. Banks
should not engage in outsourcing activities
that would weaken their internal control or compromise their business conduct or reputation.
Hence, it is very essential for the Banks to stop hiring
the services of the outsourcing agencies and staff to carry out the
day to day functions of the Banks for the overall development of
the Banks and the Indian Economy as a
whole.
Appointing
business correspondents is also outsourcing of regular
banking activities. We have
empirical evidence that in the name
of Financial Inclusion, the rural poor are being
charged for conducting regular banking
business through business correspondents, which
is fundamentally an act of injustice. Instead of opening
Customer Service Points,
banks should convert
the same into bank branches
and spread to nearly 6 lakh unbanked villages
to make the citizenry have access to affordable banking.
We demand complete ban on
outsourcing.
JUDGEMENT ON ACCUMALATION OF LEAVE
Punjab-Haryana High Court
Kulbir Singh vs State of Haryana & Ors on 5 October, 2016
204 (1)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
CHANDIGARH
CWP No. 25427 of 2013 (O/M)
Date of decision: 5.10.2016 Kulbir Singh
...... Petitioner
(s)
Versus
State of
Haryana and others ....... Respondent (s)
CORAM: HON'BLE
MR. JUSTICE KULDIP
SINGH Present:- Mr. Ramesh Goyat,
Advocate, for the petitioner.
Mr. Naveen Sheoran, Deputy A.G.
Haryana.
1. Whether the Reporters of local newspaper may be allowed to see the judgment?
2. To be referred to the Reporter or not.
3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest
KULDIP SINGH J. (ORAL)
The
petitioner has impugned the order dated 8.10.2013 (Annexure-P-3), vide which
arbitrary ceiling has been put by the respondents on more than 300 days un-utilized earned leaves of
petitioner. The petitioner claims that he is entitled to leave encashment for 300 days un-utilized earned leaves, as per the Government notication dated 12.8.1998 (Annexure-P-4), followed
by clarificatory letters dated 30.7.2010 and 17.8.2010 (Annexure-P-5
Colly.) The petitioner was working as an Assistant Turner with the respondent department and ultimately retired
as a Turner, vide order dated 6.4.2011 with effect from
30.4.2011. The petitioner was granted the benefit of 118 days of un-utilized earned leaves and the payment of leave encashment was accordingly disbursed
to him. The petitioner claims that he had got
more that 249 days earned leave to his credit, therefore,
he is entitled to 249 days leave
encashment.
For Subsequent orders see
CWP-13702-2014 1 of 3 It comes out that subsequently, the respondents re-calculated and came
to the conclusion that the un-utilized earned leave is 148 days. Accordingly, the benefit was released to the petitioner. The petitioner still maintains that he has un-utilized earned leave of 249 days to his credit and he is accordingly entitled to the said benefit.
Both the parties were directed to lead their calculations
of the earned leave. The petitioner
accordingly led his own calculation sheet
and respondents led their own calculation sheet.
Both the calculation sheets have been compared.
I have heard
the learned counsels for the parties and
have also
carefully gone
through the
le.
It comes out
that before the year 1998, the petitioner
was entitled to maximum leave encashment of 240 days. After the year
1998, he is entitled to maximum 300 days leave encashment. The calculations by the respondents shows that a deliberate mischief has been done in calculating the earned leave.
The chart shows
that on 30.7.1991, the petitioner has 279 days of earned leave to his credit.
Since at that time, the maximum leave encashment
was restricted to 240 days, therefore,
the said earned leave was reduced to 240 days and
subsequent leave taken by the
petitioner was accordingly deducted from said 240 days. Similarly, on 30.8.1993, the petitioner had 244 days of earned leave to his
credit, which was again reduced to 240 days and on 12.3.1996,
the petitioner had 357 days earned leave,
which was reduced to 300 days.
I am of view that the approach of the respondents
is wholly
illegal. If an employee is entitled to leave
encashment for particular days, that does not mean that the un-utilized earned leave is to be accumulated For Subsequent orders see CWP-13702-2014 2 of 3 upto the maximum limit, upto which leave encashment is allowed on
retirement. The un-utilized earned leave will continue to accumulate and only
at the time of retirement, the benefit of maximum leave encashment, as permissible under the rules, is to be given and the remaining un-utilized leaves will lapse.
It being so, the impugned order is set aside. The calculations submitted by the
petitioner are accepted and that of the respondents are set aside.
The respondents are ordered to calculate the un- utilized earned
leave of the petitioner of 249 days and pay the petitioner the leave
encashment equal to remaining 101 days with interest
at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of retirement
till payment. The payment of remaining amount of the leave encashment be made within two months from the date of receipt
of copy of this judgment. The department is also directed
to hold an inquiry and take follow
up action and x the responsibility of the
delinquent official, who made the wrong
calculations, which resulted
in dragging the respondent
department to the Court, resulting the un-necessary expenses to State exchequer and wastage of time of the Court.
The present writ
petition is allowed.
is-a;
The All India Bank of Baroda Officers’ Association has declared a strike in protest against the bank management’s new anti-officer transfer ...
