Bank unions will be formally signing the new wage revision agreement with the industry body Indian Banks Association (IBA) on Monday, one of the heads of the unions said today.
The pact, which will benefit 8.5 lakh employees from all the state-run banks, old generation private banks and some large foreign banks, will be signed after years of lengthy negotiations between the UFBU (United Forum of Bank Unions), an umbrella of of nine unions and the IBA.
On February 23, the parties had announced a deal under which employees would be given 15 per cent wage hike on pay-slip components, which will result in an additional salary burden of Rs 4,725 crore per year to the system.
All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary C H Venkatchalam and a member of negotiating team of the UFBU said the pact will be signed on Monday.
A senior IBA executive also confirmed in Mumbai that the agreement will be formally signed on Monday.
Under the February agreement, both the parties had agreed to settle all the pending issues in 90 days, which ended today.
The negotiations are under final stage and will be closed by Monday when the agreement will be signed, Venkatchalam said.
The agreement for which the employees have repeatedly struck work, says state-run bank employees will be able to get an off on alternate Saturdays.
This is a departure from the current practice, where employees work for half-day on Saturdays. To compensate for this, they have agreed to work full day on alternate Saturdays.
Wage revision in state-run banks is done every five years and the last was done in 2007. Venkatachalam said the current revision will be applicable from November 2012.
Source - Indiatimes