As the wage revision talks between Indian Banks' Association (IBA) that is representative of various banks and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) held in Mumbai on Saturday failed, bankers have threatened to call for a strike. News agency IANS cited H Venkatachalam-All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary as saying, "If the Finance Ministry does not intervene to make the IBA to make their improved offer, it has been decided to call for a 48-hour continuous strike by end of this month". AIBEA is a trade union of bank employees.

UFBU is an umbrella body of bank unions in the country and includes All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI).

Indian Banks' Association offered for a meagre wage revision which has been totally rejected by the UFBU. The agency cited All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary D T Franco as saying that bank officers and employees are already paid very low compared with the Government employees as well as the private sector. The IBA offered to provide a hike of 2% over the total wage bill of the banks as on March 31, 2017 that the bank unions rejected.

For bankers, wage revision is due from November 1, 2017, after the previous settlement expired on October 31, 2017.

It is to be noted that UFBU in March asked the Finance ministry to intervene in the wage revision. UFBU Convenor Sanjeev K Bandlish in a letter to the ministry dated March 21 said, "...Several rounds of negotiations have taken place but IBA has not come forward to make their offer. In fact, even discussions have not taken place for the past four or five months. Thus the negotiations are virtually deadlocked and resentment is brewing amongst the employees and officers about the delay in the negotiations and settlement."

H Venkatachalam on Sunday added, "It is a matter of shame that while thousands of crores of rupees are written off from profits towards bad loans of big corporates, the genuine demands of bank employees are being denied in this fashion".

As per the umbrella body of bank unions it has been decided to send a communication to the Government which will be followed by a nation-wide demonstration on May 9.

With Agency Inputs