PRESS
RELEASE:
By
C.H. VENKATACHALAM
GENERAL
SECRETARY
TODAY’s BANK STRIKE – TOTAL
SUCCESS
At the call
of United Forum of Bank Unions comprising of 9 bank trade unions, 10 lacs bank
employees observed All India Strike today on the following demands:
- Immediate Wage
Revision for bank employees and officers
- Stop retrograde Banking Sector reforms
Wage Revision demand:
Wage Revision Settlement in the Banks is due from November, 2012. UFBU has submitted the charter of demands in
October, 2012. Indian Banks Association (IBA) has been delaying the matter for
the past one year. When prices are
increasing day by day, when the workload on the employees has gone due to steep
increase in volume of business, there is urgent need to increase the wages of
the bank employees but bank managements attitude seems to very casual. Hence we are demanding immediate settlement
on wage revision without any further delay.
IBA’s stand unacceptable:
After we gave the notice for strike, the IBA called the Unions for
negotiations on 14th December and stated that since the profits of
the Banks are under stress due to provisions for bad loans and increase in cost
of pension, the Banks cannot afford to give higher wage revision and hence
offered an increase of Rs. 1575 crores ( 5% on the payslip components of the
total wage bill). Everyone knows that employees are not responsible for bad loans
in the Banks. It is all created at the
higher level. Nobody is preventing the
Banks to take stringent measures to recover the bad loans. But citing it as a reason to refuse
reasonable wage revision is not acceptable to us. Similarly, pension cost is bound to go up,
when the DA on pension is going up due to price rise. Can employees be blamed for the unabated
price rise ? Hence this argument is also
unfair.
Profits of the Banks are
on the rise only: Despite the unfavourable economic scenario,
Banks have been earning good profits over the years.
(Rs. In Crores – fig. of PSBs other than IDBI
Bank)
|
Year
|
Gross
Operative Profits
|
Net
profits
|
|
2006-07
|
41,500
|
19,680
|
|
2007-08
|
48,250
|
25,862
|
|
2008-09
|
65,227
|
33,514
|
|
2009-10
|
74,220
|
38,225
|
|
2010-11
|
95,908
|
43,250
|
|
2011-12
|
1,12,290
|
47,483
|
|
2012-13
|
1,16,458
|
48,700
|
Bad Loans are increasing
not because of employees:
(Rs. In Crores –
fig. of PSBs)
|
31.03.2008
|
39,030
crores
|
|
31.03.2009
|
44,954
crores
|
|
31.03.2010
|
59,927
crores
|
|
31.03.2011
|
74,664
crores
|
|
31-03-2012
|
117,000
crores
|
|
31-3-2013
|
1,64,461
crores
|
|
31-3-2013 PSBs +
Private/Foreign Banks
|
1,94,000
crores
|
Profits diverted to
provide for bad loans – Can employees be penalised ?
(Rs. In Crores – fig. of PSBs)
|
Year
|
Provisions made
for bad loans from the profits earned by the Banks
|
|
2008-09
|
11,121
crores
|
|
2009-10
|
18,036
crores
|
|
2010-11
|
29,830
crores
|
|
2011-12
|
38,177
crores
|
|
2012-13
|
43,102
crores
|
|
In 5 years
|
1,40,266 crores
|
Bad loans written off by
Banks: (Rs.
In Crores )
|
|
PSBs
|
OLD PVT BANKS
|
NEW PVT BANKS
|
FOREIGN
BANKS
|
ALL BANKS
|
|
2007
|
9189
|
610
|
1232
|
590
|
11621
|
|
2008
|
8019
|
724
|
1577
|
1334
|
11654
|
|
2009
|
6966
|
616
|
5063
|
3350
|
15995
|
|
2010
|
11185
|
884
|
6712
|
6238
|
25019
|
|
2011
|
17794
|
682
|
2336
|
3083
|
23895
|
|
2012
|
15551
|
671
|
3024
|
1646
|
20892
|
|
2013
|
27013
|
863
|
3487
|
855
|
32218
|
|
TOTAL
|
95717
|
5050
|
23431
|
17096
|
141294
|
There is profit’s to
write off bad loans but no profit to increase wages ?
The
total wage bill for the entire 8 lacs employees of the public sector banks for
the year ended 31-3-2012 was Rs. 56,000 crores.
But Rs. 38,000 crores were provided from profits toward bad loans in addition to actual write off of
Rs. 27,000 crores. (Total Rs. 65,000
crores). But when it comes to dealing
with wage increase, the argument is that Banks cannot afford. This is not acceptable to the UFBU.
Our demands are
reasonable: Our demands are reasonable and also
negotiable. UFBU would like to settle
the demands through mutual discussions.
But if the Banks do not adopt a fair approach, the employees resentment
would have to be ventilated through strikes only. We hope that IBA would understand
our demands and come forward to settle the demands through amicable
negotiations and finalise the settlement at the earliest.
Better wages would
result in better profits: If employees are paid better wages
commensurate with the prices and their workload, it will be a great motivation
and incentive to involve better and this would lead to more efficiency and
better profits for the Banks. Hence wage
increase should be seen with a positive outlook. No Bank in India had so far collapsed or gone
into loss due to increase in wages but Banks have collapsed due to
mismanagement and bad loans. Hence our
demand for wage increase should be settled at the earliest.
Review Banking Sector
Reforms: Similarly, the Government is also pursuing
policies of banking reforms which are not good for our country. Government wants to hand over the Banks to
private hands, give more licenses to industrial houses and corporates to start their
own Banks, allow foreign banks to take over our Banks, giving concessions to
defaulting borrowers and write off of huge bad loans of corporates, etc. These are
retrograde steps and hence should be abandoned forthwith.
Strengthen and expand
our public sector banking: Banks should be expanded to reach and serve
the common people more effectively. Bank
employees are always ready to work more and more for the progress and growth of
the Banks so that it will benefit the people at large.
Strike Total success –
Total impact : To
highlight these two demands, UFBU had given the strike call. The Strike
has been a total success all over the country. Banking transactions including
clearing operations were paralysed. Bank
branches remained closed. Normal banking
services were disrupted. All over the
country about 40 lacs cheques worth about Rs. 32,000 crores could not be processed
by the Clearing Houses. In Mumbai, about
6 lacs cheques worth about Rs. 3,800 crores could not be cleared. In Delhi, about 4 lacs cheques worth about
Rs. 3,300 crores could not be cleared.
In Chennai, about 3 lacs cheques worth about Rs. 2,200 crores could not
be processed in clearing. Government
transactions, foreign exchange transactions,. Money market operations, etc.
were also affected. In many places, ATMs
did not function or were dried up.
Strike was forced on us:
Even though UFBU had given notice for the strike one month ago, the
Government and IBA did not take necessary steps to resolve the demands. Hence the strike has been forced on us. We are sorry that the banking public would
have been inconvenienced by this strike but that was unavoidable due to the
non-serious approach of the IBA / Government to avert the strike by improving
their offer on wage increase and discussing our concerns on the banking sector
reforms.
We are ready to resolve
the issues by discussions: UFBU is always open to resolve the demands by
discussions and negotiations but IBA and the Government should also be
forthcoming. If the same negative attitude
will continue, we will be left with no alternative than to further intensify
the agitation.
Next phase of programme:
UFBU is meeting at Hyderabad on 23rd December to discuss
further course of action and next phase of our agitation and strikes.
C.H.
VENKATACHALAM
GENERAL
SECRETARY