HYDERABAD, Oct 23: All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) on Saturday said it would give a call for All-India bank strike if the wage revision in Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) is not resolved.
AIBEA General Secretary Ch Venkatachalam in a release said If the top management of CSB Bank Limited does not come forward to resolve the issue and extend wage revision to its employees and officers on the lines of wage revision given to all other bank employees, AIBEA cannot remain a silent spectator and will be constrained to decide for an All India Strike by all bank employees all over the country.
We hope that the management of the CSB Bank would reconsider their stand and come forward to amicably resolve the issue.
We also expect that the Government of India would intervene in the matter to advice the Bank to settle the issue in the larger interest of industrial peace in the banking sector.
Mr Venkatchalam said on November 20, 2020, a Bipartite Settlement had been signed between Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and all Bank Unions to extend wage revision to bank employees and officers of all Banks for the period November 2017 to October 2022.
All the 12 Public Sector Banks, 10 Private Sector Banks and 7 Foreign Banks were covered under this uniform wage revision Settlement, he said, adding that under Private Sector, the Banks covered were Karnataka Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDBI Bank, Ratnakar Bank, Federal Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, South Indian Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank and Nainital Bank.
The top Union leader said only CSB Bank which was party to the Bipartite Settlements up to 2015, refused to give mandate to IBA and thus was not covered by the 11th Bipartite Settlement in 2020.
Because of this, employees and officers of CSB Bank alone have been deprived of wage revision, he contended.
Mr Venkatachalam said the management of CSB Bank, a 100-year old private sector Bank headquartered in Thrissur of Kerala assured that once the Bipartite settlement is finalised, they will take a decision to extend wage revision. But this assurance was also not implemented.
He said all our attempts to persuade the management to implement wage revision did not yield any result. Hence all the Unions in the Bank gave the call for three-day strike from September 29. However, the management was interested more in breaking the strike than resolving the demand. Yet, the strike was a good success, he claimed.
In view of the management’s adamant standpoint, the Unions in the Bank gave the call for another three-day strike from October 20 and all the Central Trade Unions in Kerala formed Struggle Aid Committee in support of the strike.
The AIBEA General Secretary said the issue was raised in the Kerala Assembly and Finance Minister K N Balagopal also intervened. Even then, the management remained adamant, he added.
In view of the adamant stand of the CSB Bank management, All India Bank Employees Association, All India Bank Officers Confederation, Bank Employees Federation of India and Indian National Bank Employees Federation (AIBEA, AIBOC, BEFI & INBEF) gave the call for ‘Solidarity Strike’ by employees and officers of all other Banks in Kerala on Friday coinciding with the three-day strike in CSB Bank Limited.
As per this clarion call, the solidarity strike was observed successfully. Employees of all commercial banks, RRB-Regional Rural Bank and Co-operative Banks in Kerala overwhelmingly participated in the Solidarity Strike.
He said the strike has received wide support not only amongst the bank employees, but amongst the wide spectrum of political and trade union movement and general people at large in Kerala.
We thank the political parties, trade unions and the people of Kerala for their spontaneous support to the strike.
Mr Venkatachalam said since the management still remains adamant and not coming forward to resolve the issue, all the Unions in CSB Bank have decided to give the call for another three-day strike from December 30, 2021 and an indefinite strike in March, 2022.
(UNI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
