Bank unions announce strikes from Sept 11, indefinite strike from Oct 26: Know their demands

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has called for a series of nationwide strikes, including an indefinite strike from October 26, to press for implementation of five-day banking and withdrawal of the government's revised performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for senior bank officers.

In a circular dated August 23, the UFBU said bank employees and officers would observe an all-India strike on September 11, followed by a three-day strike from September 28 to 30.

It has also announced an indefinite strike from October 26, citing the government's "negative attitude" towards its demands.

The UFBU represents seven bank employee and officer unions -- All India Bank Employees Association, All India Bank Officers' Confederation, National Confederation of Bank Employees, All India Bank Officers' Association, Bank Employees Federation of India, Indian National Bank Employees Federation, and INBOC.

The unions have demanded that the government honour its commitment to introduce five-day banking, withdraw its "unilateral and discriminatory" PLI scheme and keep its implementation in abeyance, modify the scheme through bilateral discussions with unions and resolve other pending issues.

The UFBU said the Indian Banks' Association had agreed under the 12th Bipartite Settlement/9th Joint Note, signed on March 8, 2024, to introduce a five-day working week by increasing daily working hours by 40 minutes from Monday to Friday.

The proposal was subsequently recommended to the government.

“"It is more than 2 years now and yet the matter is kept pending with the government," the circular said.

On the PLI issue, the UFBU said it had been agreed with the IBA that the incentive would be based on the performance of the bank as a whole and that the number of days of PLI would be uniform for all employees and officers up to Scale VII.

However, the Department of Financial Services under the Finance Ministry has directed banks to implement a different PLI scheme for Scale IV officers and above.

The union said the issue had gone into conciliation before the Central Labour Commissioner following an earlier strike call by the UFBU and was also under litigation before the Delhi High Court.

The UFBU said it had discussed the matter with the IBA and sent suggestions to the government for changes to the existing scheme.

"But overlooking all these, the DFS is insisting on the implementation of their unilateral scheme," it said.

The unions also argued that the revised scheme would impose a heavy cost on banks and create divisions among employees.

According to the UFBU's estimate, officers in Scale IV and above number around 40,000 out of about eight lakh bank employees and officers, or roughly 5% of the workforce.

The union said the proposed incentive would be discriminatory as senior officers could receive more than 20 times the maximum PLI available to other employees.

The cost of PLI for Scale IV officers and above would be "very huge and disproportionately much higher" than what other employees and officers would receive, it said.

"What they really prefer is fair treatment, work-life balance, and stress-free work environment," the union said, adding that the proposed arrangement would provide senior officers with a "discriminative incentive" that would keep them "away from the rest of the colleagues".

"A scheme that dangles 365 days' pay before a few officers while condemning entire brackets of performing officers to nil by design is not a reward, it is a ranking machine, and the same machine that decides the incentive today will decide promotions, postings and continuation in service tomorrow," it said.