Bank unions and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) are likely to ink the final settlement of the industry-level wage revision on April 27 in Mumbai. The wage revision for the banking industry is due from November 2007.
The decks have been cleared for the final settlement after a delegation of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), led by its convenor Mr C. H.Venkatachalam, met the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, at North Block on Wednesday.
In November 2009, the UFBU and IBA had agreed for a 17.5 per cent increase in wages under the proposed ninth bipartite settlement, which would span five years until October 2012. It was also agreed to give both existing as well as certain retired employees another chance to opt for pension benefits.
As many as 7.75 lakh employees from 26 public sector, 12 private and eight foreign banks would benefit from the final wage settlement.
The annual wage bill for the public sector banks, including the State Bank of India Group, was Rs 27,500 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007. This ninth bipartite settlement would lead to an additional annual outgo of Rs 4,816 crore for the public sector banks and Rs 400 crore for private and foreign banks.
About 2.6 lakh existing (non SBI) employees are to get another chance to switch to pension from Provident Fund as a retirement benefit. Also, about 60,000 retired employees, who are PF optees, will now be given another chance to switch to pension benefits.
Public sector bank employees can currently avail themselves of only two retirement benefits — pension or provident fund and gratuity. In the eighth bipartite wage settlement, the bank unions had settled for 13.25 per cent hike.
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