CIRCULAR NO. 27/48/2013/4 dated 14TH January, 2014 :
Dear
Comrades,
· In response to our
strike notice, Govt. intervenes and CLC held a meeting today
·
IBA agrees to
prepone the date of the talks and hold negotiations on 17th January,
2014.
· UFBU will
participate in the Talks and looking to IBA’s revised offer, further decision
on strike call will be taken
As per the decision of our UFBU meeting held
on 23-12-2013, since there was no response from the IBA after our strike on
18-12-2013, UFBU had given the call for 48 hours Strike on 20th and
21st January, 2014 and accordingly served our strike notice on IBA
and Government. In the meantime, the IBA
fixed a meeting for discussions on 29th January, 2014 knowing
full-well that UFBU has given the call for strike on 20th and 21st
January, 2014. However, the Central
Government intervened in the matter and the Chief Labour Commissioner from the
Labour Ministry called for the conciliation meeting and this meeting was held
today in his office in New Delhi. Mr. M
V Tanksale, Chief Executive of IBA and Mr. Unnikrishnan, Dy. Chief Executive of
IBA participated on behalf of IBA.
Director (IR) and Under Secretary (IR) from the Finance Ministry also
participated in this meeting. From UFBU,
all constituent unions were present.
During the conciliation meeting, UFBU
pointed out that the IBA’s present offer of 5% increase was too low and hence
not acceptable. UFBU also refuted their arguments of cost constraints and
pointed to the increasing profits of the Banks in the last 5 years and hence
our reasonable demands can be easily negotiated and settled by IBA.
The IBA informed that they are equally
serious and interested to conclude the negotiations at the earliest with an
open mind on our demands and hence would like to further continue the
negotiations with the UFBU. IBA further
stated that in view of the strike call, they would like to hold the next round
of negotiations on 17th January, 2014 instead of 29th
January.
The Chief Labour Commissioner suggested that
in view of the above offer of the IBA, the strike call can be postponed and
bilateral talks can be held with the IBA.
From UFBU, while expressing our commitment
to bilateralism, it was informed that UFBU will participate in the negotiations
on 17th January, 2014 but any
decision on our strike call can be taken only after looking to the outcome and
revised offer of the IBA during negotiations to be held on 17th
instant.
Comrades, while the conciliation meeting was
held in a cordial manner and the IBA has preponed the negotiations to 17th
instant, no undue optimism should be
entertained as everything will depend on the revised offer IBA would make
in the further negotiations.
Hence
there should be no let up in our unity and no laxity in our preparations for
the strike action.
We reproduce herein the text of the UFBU
Circular No. 15 issued today in this regard.
With greetings,
Yours Comradely,
C.H.
VENKATACHALAM
GENERAL
SECRETARY
UFBU
Circular No. 15 dated 13-1-2014 :
CONCILIATION
MEETING HELD ON 13.01.2014
Subsequent
to issuance of Notice by UFBU for 48 Hours’ All India Bank Strike on the 20th
and 21st January 2014, the conciliation meeting was held today at
New Delhi. The proceedings were
conducted by Shri B.K. Sanwariya, CLC(C).
The meeting was also attended by the officials from Department of
Financial Services. IBA was represented
by Shri M.V. Tanksale, Chief Executive Officer, Shri K. Unnikrishnan, Deputy
Chief Executive Officer and other officials.
The
leaders of UFBU argued that the meetings are being held with much delay and
there is no seriousness on the part of IBA to conclude the bilateral
discussions at the earliest. UFBU also
stated that the offer of 5% given by IBA is too low.
The
representatives of IBA stated that so far five rounds of meetings were held and
considering the constraints of banking industry on account of increasing NPAs
and also the rising pension cost, the affordable offer was given by IBA.
The
Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) suggested that another round of talks shall
be held between IBA and UFBU to find amicable solution and further meetings
should be held at regular intervals, say fortnightly, to settle an early wage
revision. Agreeing to the suggestions
made by CLC(C), the representatives of IBA offered to hold negotiations with
the representatives of UFBU on 17th January 2014. UFBU has responded and said that it will
attend the negotiation with an open mind and also conveyed that the decision on
strike will depend on the outcome of the meeting to be held on 17th
January 2014.
We advise all our
affiliates and members to go ahead with the agitational programmes as advised
earlier. The outcome of the proposed
meeting on the 17th January
2014 will be informed in due course.
Sd.. M V Murali
Convener