A meeting of senior office-bearers of an all India body of bank officers in Hyderabad has decided to intensify its opposition to merger of banks, even as the effective date for a three-way merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda (BoB) is just a few weeks away.
Another decision the office-bearers of the All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) took was to remain in the ongoing bipartite wage negotiations that recently saw a majority bank officers’ body staying away.
Bank merger and wage negotiations were the two key issues discussed, said AIBOA General Secretary G. Nagarajan after the meeting here on Sunday. A case filed by the Association against the merger is before the Supreme Court, he added.
Noting that the merger of banks would impact the service, lead to closure of branches and have a bearing on future employment, he said post the merger of the three banks, more such mergers may take place, including the one involving Andhra Bank. April 1 is the effective date for amalgamation of the three banks, something that the Centre expects to result in creation of a mega bank with far higher lending abilities.
BoB is already in the process of “integration, harmonisation and stabilisation of human resource”. The objective is to harmonise the HR policies, systems and processes followed by the three banks, to ensure smooth cultural integration and to arrive at equalisation of terms of employment, BoB had said in a request for the proposal (RFP) for appointment of a consultant.
It had also floated another RFP to select a service provider for IT Programme Management Support.
Senior officials who oversaw the merger of five associate banks of SBI with itself about two years ago, said the upcoming merger would be an altogether different exercise.
In the case of SBI and its five associate banks, the process was made relatively smooth as the entities concerned were already on the same IT platform.
Wage negotiations
On the ongoing wage negotiations between the United Forum of Bank Unions, an umbrella body of nine bank employees and officers’ bodies, and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), Mr. Nagarajan said as opposed to its earlier position of the negotiations covering only officers up to Scale III, the IBA has agreed to cover up to Scale V officers. This means that only around 2,800 Scale VI and VII of the total 3.78 lakh officers are not being covered under the negotiations.
“While AIBOA stands for all officers, non-inclusion of Scale VI and VII should not lead to break in talks,” he said, adding that the IBA has enhanced its wage revision offer from 8% to 10%.
