17% wage hike for Bank employees:  Wage Revision MOU signed between IBA and UFBU on Thursday

The India Banks Association (IBA) and United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) an umbrella body of 9 Bank unions AIBEA, NCBE, NOBW, BEFI, INBEF (workmen unions) along with, AIBOC, INBOC, AIBOC, and NOBO (Officers Associations) have agreed to a 17% wage hike based on pay slip basis for all the public sector banks including SBI and a few old generation private banks.  The MOU was signed on December 7, 2023 (Thursday) under the 12th Bipartite Settlement for Workmen and the 9th Joint Note for Officers. The CTC due to this settlement amounts to Rs.12449 crore, which the banks spend on employees and officers including their salary and other benefits related to their employment.

The new pay scales will be constructed after merging dearness allowance corresponding to 8088 points (Average CPI (Consumer Price Index) points as applicable for the quarter of July, August, and September 2021) to the basic pay as of October 31 of 2022, and adding loading of 3% thereon. IBA will work out the distribution of the annual wage increase between award staff and officers separately and proportionately based on the breakdown of establishment expenses for FY 2022. The wage revision for 5 years will be effective from November 2022 to October 2027 as such employees will receive arrears for the previous 12 months.

The settlement also provides, as a one-time measure, a monthly ex-gratia amount along with a pension by public sector banks to pensioners and family pensioners who were drawing pensions as of October 31, 2022. The improvement announced in pension is applicable for all pensioners from 1986. However, the applicability of said ex-gratia for the retirees of the current settlement period is not yet decided.  The final detailed bipartite settlement /joint note on the wage revision will be finalised within 180 days.

IBA also informed Unions that they have recommended the Government to declare all Saturdays as bank holidays under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instrument Act, which has been the demand of the unions for several years.

The representatives of constituents of UFBU unions and other unions and associations had submitted a common charter of demand to IBA for the 12th Bipartite Settlement. After getting a mandate from respective banks, the IBA committee led by Mr. M.V. Rao (MD and CEO of Central Bank) commenced negotiation on July 27, 2023. The negotiation committee thereafter held meeting with Unions on 31.08.2023,29.09.2023, 27.10.2023, and 09.11.2023. When the talks were progressing, IBA improved their initial offer of  16% to a 17% wage hike for a period from 1.11.2022 to 31.10.2027.