Bank Wages Revision: Charter of Demands for 11th Bipartite Settlement

CHARTER OF DEMANDS FOR 11TH BIPARTITE SETTLEMENT

ON REVISION OF WAGES AND SERVICE CONDITIONS:

By

BANK EMPLOYEES FEDERATION OF INDIA(BEFI)

01. BASIC PAY

• Revision of Basic Pay w.e.f. 1-11-2017 by merger of Special Allowance (7.75%of B.Pay) alongwith D.A. payable on Basic Pay and Special Allowance at the average index for the quarter July-September 2017.
• Construction of revised pay scales by loading thereafter at 20% to clerical staff and 25% to subordinate staff.
• Fitment on stage to stage basis

Stagnation Increments:

• Stagnation increments once in 2 years without any ceiling for both clerical and subordinate staff.
• Stagnation increment/s to be given in all cases of reversion from officer to clerical cadre and clerical to substaff cadre

02. SPECIAL PAY / PQP/ EQP / FPP/ OFFICIATING PAY

• Special Pay to be revised by merger of D.A and loading as in the case of Basic Pay.
• Further increase in Special Pay amount commensurate with the duties, responsibilities and risks involved in each post.
• Revision of PQP/EQP equivalent to the first stage increment in the pay scale.
• Revision of FPP on the same lines of revision of Basic pay.
• Sanction of additional increments to Subordinate Staff for acquiring additional qualifications.
• Anomaly in denial of additional increments for directly passing post- graduation to be rectified.
• Restrictions in payment of officiating allowance to be removed.
• Formula for computation of officiating pay needs to be revised and made simple

03. DEARNESS ALLOWANCE

• D.A. to be paid based on CPI (2001=100) Index Series instead of CPI (1960=100) Series.
• D.A. to be revised on monthly variation in Index.
• D.A. to be revised on rise and fall of every point in the Index.

04. HOUSE RENT ALLOWANCE

• Revision of HRA rates suitably on the revised Pay.
• Areas/population group to be re-classified and based on latest census figures.
• Treating peripheral areas of metros at par for payment of HRA.
• Introduction of Leased Accommodation facility to employees.
• Payment of HRA on Capital Cost / Rent Receipt basis upto 150% of normal entitlement.
• Payment of HRA to employees residing in Bank’s Quarters after recovery of standard rent.
• Special Economic Zone/EPZ/NEZ, etc. to be made at par with Project Areas.
• Revision in HRA rates at places based on mid-census population figures
• Revision in HRA at project area centres.

Payment of HRA to employees of Project Area who does not reside in accommodation provided by Bank .

05. TRANSPORT PAY

• Existing Transport Allowance to be substantially increased and renamed as Transport Pay with payment of D.A. thereon.

06. OTHER ALLOWANCES

• Adequate increase in all existing Other Allowances.
• Adequate increase in Halting Allowance/Reimbursement of Lodging Expenses.
• Introduction of Education Allowance
• Introduction of Closing Allowance, Mid-academic Year Allowance, Discomfort Allowance for staggered/odd-hour duties.
• Extension of allowances paid to Central/State Government Employees like Disturbed Area Allowance, Island Allowance, Agency/Tribal Allowance, Remote/Difficult Area Allowance, etc.
• Extension of North-East incentive as per 6th pay commission and as extended to RBI employees in North-east/Sikkim
• Far-flung/difficult areas in Uttarakhand to be paid Special Area
• Allowance at par with Leh/Ladakh, etc.
• Hill allowance should be given to all Districts where State
• Governments are paying Hill Allowance.

07. LEAVE RULES

Improvements in Leave Rules:

Casual Leave

• Casual leave to be increased to 18 days.
• Unavailed Casual Leave to be sanctioned without medical certificate.

Privilege Leave

• Accumulation of Privilege Leave should be increased to 300 days .
• Encashment of Privilege Leave should be increased to 300 days.
• Where there is any shortfall under PL, Sick Leave to be allowed for encashment, if available.
• Employees should be permitted to avail Privilege Leave on 6 occasions in a calendar year.
• Privilege leave availed, irrespective of number of days, on grounds of sickness on production of medical certificate be allowed without being counted as a chance.
• Employees should be permitted to avail their privilege leave on production of sickness certificate even in cases of illness of their family members residing with them.
• Privilege Leave encashment to be permitted in case of loss of job due to punishments/resignations.
• Notice period for availing privilege leave should be reduced from 30 days to 7 days
• Intervening holidays falling in between the leave period should not be counted as Privilege Leave.

Sick Leave

• One month sick leave for every completed year of service, without any ceiling.
• Submission of medical certificate be waived for availing sick leave for small ailments like fever, flu etc, for maximum period of 5 days. For this, number of occasions in a year may be stipulated.
• Employees should be permitted to avail their sick leave on production of sickness certificate even in cases of illness of their family members residing with them.
• Special sick leave over and above the normal eligibility for treatment of cancer, renal failure, major accidents etc. and in cases, where all leave has been exhausted.
• Intervening holidays falling in between the leave period should not be counted as Sick Leave.

Maternity Leave:

• A female employee may be granted maternity leave, for legal adoption of child, upto one year within the overall entitlement.
• Over and above the maternity leave, another 2 months to be given to cover cases of hysterectomy, wherein the maternity leave is already exhausted.
• Maternity leave should be 2 years in service for women employees and for 1 year on one occasion for one child.
• Specific gyneac ailments to be covered under maternity leave including infertility treatment.

Child Care Leave:

• Child care leave on the lines as available for government employees be extended to bank employees also.

Sabbatical Leave:

Sabbatical leave to all employees upto 2 years in the entire service with service benefits.

Study Leave

• Introduction of study leave for employees to pursue higher studies.

Special Leave for Office-bearers

• Special leave provided for office bearers should be enhanced.
• Provision of Duty Leave to Office-bearers for attending conciliation meetings/ labour courts /tribunals / labour training programmes, etc.

Leave Bank:

• Leave bank concept should be introduced with suitable modalities with sole object to help colleague employees in distress due to terminal diseases and having no leave to their credit.
• Absence during Curfew, etc.:
• Absence due to curfew, riots, natural calamities/ prohibitory orders and other disturbances beyond the control of the employees to be treated as on duty.
• Special leave for sports, etc.:
• Provision to be made for special leave for sports activities, trekking, mountaineering, etc. to those employees, who take part in approved competitions/programmes.
• Special Leave with Pay when an employee dies after major ailments
• In case of death of the employee on account of prolonged sickness, the period of leave on loss of pay should be treated as special leave with pay.

08. MEDICAL AID / HOSPITALISATION

ANNUAL MEDICAL AID:

• Substantial increase in annual medical aid amount due to escalation in cost of doctor fees, medicines, etc.

HEALTH CHECK-UP:

• Reimbursement of health check-up expenses, at least to those above 45 years of age.
• Periodical health checkup for those who operate computers and reimbursement of expenses related to computer related diseases.

09. LEAVE FARE CONCESSION

• Improvements to be made in LFC scheme on distance, class and mode of travel, etc Dynamic Fair (Rajdhani / Satabdi or any Train) to be reimbursed.
• Husband and wife if they are working in different banks are allowed to avail their block of LFC separately. Same provision may be allowed to couple working in the same bank.
• Road mileage charges to be increased substantially.
• Sight-seeing and local charges be also paid by the Bank within overall limit.
• To and fro Air Fare, beyond LFC entitlement, be paid to employees working in Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram to Kolkata, Andaman-Nicobar Islands up to Kolkata
• / Chennai and in Lakshadweep up to Cochin. And in far flung areas of Himalayan States to Chandigarh/Delhi.
• LFC to visit abroad to be permitted .
• LFC by any mode including own car to be permitted.
• One more option for change of periodicity.
• Package tour should be allowed within overall limit
• Pony charges be increased.
• Reimbursement of service charges for booking of tickets be allowed.
• Partial encashment of LFC to be allowed

10. OTHER SERVICE CONDITIONS

ON TRANSFER:

• Transportation of personal effects by road by an IBA approved transport operator to be permitted in all cases.
• To increase the stipulated weight upto 5000 kgs.
• Compensation due to breakage or damage to be increased to Rs.2000/- on production of receipt and Rs.1500/- in case no receipt is produced.

11. SUPERANNUATION BENEFITS

PROVIDENT FUND:

• 12% of ‘Pay’

Gratuity:

• One month’s ‘Pay’ for each year of service rendered without any restrictions.
• Last drawn ‘Pay’ or 12 months average Pay, whichever is higher, should be taken for computation of gratuity.

Pension related issues:

• NPS to be withdrawn and all new employees from 1-4-2010 covered by NPS to be covered by old scheme under Pension Regulation 1995.
• Permanent Part-time employees on Consolidated Wages prior to 1.5.2010 and made 1/3rd wage from 1-5-2010 should be covered by Pension Regulations.
• Periodical Pension updation along with wage revision of service employees
• Basic pension of all existing pensioners to be updated at the same index level like Basic Pay of service employees viz July-Sept.2017 average.
• DA on pension to be on monthly basis.
• Extending 2nd option facility to employees who resigned between 1995 and 27.4.2010.
• Qualifying service for full pension should be 20 years like in Govt/RBI;
• Average of 10 months or last drawn ‘Pay’, ‘whichever is higher’ should be considered for calculation of basic pension.
• Service rendered in Defence, if not counted for Defence pension should be added in bank service for payment of pension.
• Additional pension should be given after completion of 80 years of age.

Family Pension –

To be improved at par with RBI/ Government pension scheme.

Pension Regulation 1995 clause 39(3)(a)(1) to be amended as follows:

• Twice the ordinary rate of family pension or 50% of the last pay drawn whichever is less, from the date of death of an employee who died in harness for a period of 10 years without any upper age limit.
• Full pension as family pension for 10 years or upto the age of 70 years .
• Payment of Family Pension to unmarried/widowed daughters for life and if spouse and daughters are not available then to parents.
• Incorporation of provision in Pension Regulation in synergy with Clause 6 (b) 6 (c) and 6 (d) of settlement dated 10.4.2002.
• Extension of Para-368(17) of Sastry Award to Pension Optees.

Encashment of leave:

Encashment of Privilege Leave should be increased to 300 days.

Where there is any shortfall under PL, Sick Leave to be allowed for encashment, if available.

Privilege Leave encashment to be permitted in case of loss of job due to punishments/resignations.

Cost on superannuation benefits should be outside and over and above the negotiated wage cost.

12. BONUS / EX-GRATIA

Bonus Act to be amended to remove the existing eligibility ceiling and Bonus to be paid to all employees. Till the Act is amended, Ex-gratia in lieu of bonus should be paid to all employees

13. COMPASSIONATE GROUND APPOINTMENTS

Compassionate ground appointments to the family member of the employees who die in harness to be suitably revised without further delay .

14. DEFINITION OF FAMILY AND DEPENDENTS

‘Family’ for the purpose of hospitalization/Leave Fare Concession should include parents/parents-in-law, children, unmarried/widowed/ divorced daughter/sister and physically/mentally challenged son/daughter, brother/sister with disability of 25% or more, who are ordinarily residing with /wholly dependent on the employee.

15. DEPENDENTS’ INCOME CRITERIA

• Amount for defining dependents to be increased from Rs.10000/- to Rs.18000/- per month.

16. LOANS & ADVANCES

• Increase in quantum of interest free festival advance
• Introduction of Education Loan scheme to wards of employees for pursuing graduate/post-graduate education etc., under concessional rate of interest.
• Housing loan in case of death of an employee should be written off.
• Housing Loan to Staff member at nominal interest.

17. OUTSOURCED / CONTRACT/ TEMPORARY / CASUAL EMPLOYEES

• All types of outsourcing of regular permanent jobs to be withdrawn which are not covered by existing settlement provisions
• All temporary/ contract/casual/outsourced employees should be absorbed.
• Equal pay for equal work for contract workers as per recent judgement of honourable Supreme Court.

18. VOLUNTARY CESSATION FROM SERVICE:

• This Chapter needs to be deleted in view of court judgements
• Those who were removed from service under this clause to be extended a chance to appeal.
• Those who have been treated under this provision to be covered under pension scheme and pension to be sanctioned to them.

19. PART TIME EMPLOYEES

• All part time sweepers/safai karamcharies to be converted to full time sweepers.
• Permanent Part-time employees on Consolidated Wages prior to 1.5.2010 and made 1/3rd wage from 1-5-2010 should be covered by Pension Regulations and not under NPS.
• Improvement in fitment formula of part-time employees on enhancement to higher-scale/full-scale wages.
• ML for legal adoption of child to be extended to part-time employees.

20. RETIRED EMPLOYEES

• LFC reimbursement should be extended to retired bank employees.
• Ex-gratia to pre 1986 retirees/widows to be revised.
• Same DA at 100% compensation for all pensioners and removal of slab system.
• Pension updation along with wage revision of service employees, revising the Basic Pension of all past retirees to the index point under 11th BPS, uniform rate of DA for all pensioners and removal of slab DA system for past retirees, improvement in family pension etc on the lines of the Government/RBI scheme.
• The percentage of allocation towards welfare schemes of retirees should be uniformly defined.
• Medical Insurance premium of Retired employees should be borne by Bank.

21. EXPENSES WHILE ON TRANSFERS

Transportation charges on transfer should be reimbursed in full by any mode

Packing charges also be reimbursed.

Hotel accommodation for 6 days with halting allowance on transfer of an employee.

Travel expenses and Joining Time should be allowed to employees on their transferred to another station.

Road transport charges should be revised.

22. OTHER DEMANDS

• Streamlining and defined business/banking hours within working hours
• Deletion of Para 536 of Sastri Award BSRBs should be revived.
• Personal drivers in the Banks should be regularised.
• Adequate recruitment of clerical and sub staff in all Banks.

23. PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED / DIFFERENTLY ABLED EMPLOYEES:

• Government guidelines on concessions to such employees in transfers/rotations/postings, etc. to be strictly followed by all Banks.
• Revision of conveyance allowance paid to these employees as per
• Govt. Guidelines.
• 25 days CL for physically challenged employees.
• Full pension to physically challenged employees at 50% of Pay irrespective of service rendered.

24. EX-SERVICEMEN EMPLOYEES:

• Uniform and consolidated guidelines to be issued for fixation of emoluments of Ex Servicemen joining the Banks.

25. STAFF WELFARE SCHEME:

• The formula/quantum for allocation from profits for the Staff Welfare Fund should be revised/increased

26. REGIONAL RURAL BANK/ GRAMIN BANK:

Extension of benefits of Special Pays/Other Allowances to the Regional Rural Bank Employees at per with Industry level agreement.

Implementation of Industry level Pension Agreement in the Regional Rural Banks without any deviations.

27. GENERAL:

The Settlement should be effective from 1-11-2017

Unions reserve the right to alter, amend, add, delete or revise the demands in due course. 
***************************