The first meeting of the Office Bearers of AIBEA after our recent Conference was held at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on 12/13-6-2023. Com. Rajen Nagar, President, presided over the meeting along with the Vice Presidents Com. P.R. Mehta, Com. J.P. Sharma, Com. Partha Chanda and Com. N. Shankar.
Obituary : The meeting observed a minute’s silence to mourn the death of the people who lost their lives in the recent tragic train accident near Balasore in Odisha.
Privatisation of Banks – continue the campaign: The meeting took notice of the continued attempts of the Government to privatise our public sector banks. In view of the continuation of the agenda by the Government, it was decided that our campaign against such attempts should be continued. It was also decided to organize a national seminar in Delhi in July, 2023 during the monsoon session of the Parliament and coinciding with the Bank Nationalisation Day i.e. 19th July, 2023. As decided in our Conference, Bank Clinic project will be launched in Mumbai on 19th July, 2023 as a pilot project in Maharashtra.
Agitation and Strikes demanding adequate recruitment in the Banks: Acute shortage of staff and our demand for filling up the vacancies in clerical and substaff cadre was one of the important resolutions adopted by us in our Mumbai Conference. As a follow up of this Resolution, it has been decided to hold a meeting of the Presidents and General Secretaries of our All India Bankwise organisations during August, 2023 when the details of our agitational programmes and strike actions will be finalized.
Meeting also decided to take up with the Government for withdrawal of their oral instructions to stop recruitment in the Banks to fill up the substaff /part time employee vacancies.
Resolution of pending issues and commencement of negotiations for 12th Bipartite Wage Settlement: The meeting noted with concern that important pending issues like updation of pension and introduction of 5 Banking Days per week are being delayed and negotiations on our charter of demands for 12th BPS have also not yet commenced by IBA.
The meeting was of the opinion that if these issues are delayed further by IBA, the matter should be taken up with UFBU for deciding agitational programmes.
The meeting noted the efforts being taken by UFBU’s Sub-Committee regarding Medical Insurance scheme for the retirees.
Problems and demands of Co-op. Bank employees : After discussion it was decided to observe 1st July, 2023 as All India Demands Day jointly by AIBEA and All India Co-op. Bank Employees Federation through campaign meetings, poster display and Badge Wearing on the following demands:
- Introduce 2 Tier system in Co-op. Banks
- Implement amalgamation of Co-op. Banks
- Recapitalise Co-op. Banks adequately
- Pension for all co-op. Bank employees +
Co-ordination with AIBOA: Our meeting discussed the issue of recent developments leading to friction in the relationship between AIBEA and our sister organisation AIBOA. The meeting reiterated the following:
o AIBEA being the founder of AIBOA, the question of either AIBEA or AIBOA being independent of each other is ill-conceived.
o Both AIBEA and AIBOA are mutually inter-dependent.
o AIBEA’s advice to avoid election/contests and bring about a united team is by no
means any interference and was only in the interest of AIBOA.
o Since this advice was not accepted, AIBEA decided not to recognise the new team announced by them.
o AIBEA will continue its efforts to ensure a united leadership team in AIBOA
o AIBEA reaffirms its commitment to co-ordinated functioning of AIBEA and AIBOA as
the same is core to the basic tenets of AIBEA and AIBOA.
Regional Rural Banks: The meeting discussed the demands of RRB employees and decided to extend our support to AIGBEA in this regard. A meeting of AIGBEA along with the leaders of our Unions in the Sponsor Banks will be held to strengthen their organisation and to resolve their issues.
Private Sector Banks: Office Bearers discussed about the increasing problems faced by our Unions in Private Sector Banks and decided to hold a meeting of our Private Sector Bank unions’ Cell to discuss all these issues.
Daily Deposit Collectors: It has been decided to organise a Dharna before IBA in Mumbai to press the Charter of Demands submitted to IBA by our All India Bank Deposit Collectors Federation.
Merger of Unions: The meeting took note of the position of merger of Unions in Indian Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and PNB. While noting that amalgamation and integration of Unions have been mostly completed, still in some States it is yet to be completed thus delaying the holding of their All India Conferences. The delay in merger of our Unions in Canara Bank was also discussed. The meeting decided to advise our Unions to expedite and complete the process without any further delay.
Bank Mitras/Business Correspondent Agents(BCA) : The meeting took serious note of the engagement of large number of Bank Mitras/BCAs by the Banks and the lack of proper service conditions and remuneration. Already in some of the States, these BM/BCAs have been organised under AIBEA and it was decided that all the State Federations should take steps to organise them under the banner of AIBEA. It was decided to hold an All India Convention of Bank Mitras/BCAs to highlight their problems and demands.
Outsourcing of regular jobs to contract employees: As per our Bipartite Settlement, only IT related jobs can be outsourced that too where in-house capabilities are not there. There is no other provision permitting outsourcing our regular jobs. But Banks have been trying to outsource some of our regular jobs. We have been protesting against such attempts. This should continue since outsourcing of regular jobs is violation of BPS.
We also observe that these contract employees are paid very less emoluments, even though they are eligible for wages as per BPS based on equal pay for equal work. Even minimum wages as per the Act are not paid to them. Hence it was decided that we should take up these demands to render justice to the contract employees.
Already AIBEA has decided to organize the contract employees to protect their rights. Only in few States, they have been organized under AIBEA. The meeting decided to hold an All India Convention to expedite the process of organizing them in all the States.
The meeting also decided that the recent judgment of the Supreme Court permitting outsourcing of Armed Guards in the Banks needs to be challenged as the judgement is in deviation of our BP Settlement provisions.
Jewel Loan Appraisers: Banks have introduced the Scheme of Gold Loan/Jewel Loan in some of the States particularly in southern India. Hence large number of Jewel Loan Appraisers are engaged by the Banks. There is no uniformity in the Scheme nor in the remuneration paid to these Appraisers. Hence these Appraisers have been organized under AIBEA in these States. It was decided to work out organizational structure for the Jewel Loan Appraisers to be affiliated to respective State Federations and AIBEA.
Trade Union Training Institute: Looking to the need to impart trade union education and knowledge to our emerging cadres and leaders, it was decided in our Conference to launch Prabhat-Parvana Trade Union Training Institute. Office Bearers decided to launch the Institute in October, 2023 coinciding with the 114th Birthday of Com. Prabhat Kar. The Institute will be housed in Parvana Bhavan premises in Nagpur.
Com. D R Tuljapurkar, Joint Secretary has been given the charge of working out the details of the course content, syllabus, curriculum, faculty, infrastructure, etc.
Centenary of Com. H L Parvana: The 100th birth anniversary of our great leader late Com. H L Parvana falls on the 3rd November, 2023. The meeting decided that the occasion should be celebrated befittingly through various
programmes. Com. N. Shankar, Vice President and Com. A M Pereira, Joint Secretary have been entrusted to prepare the details of the programmes to be undertaken by AIBEA and our Unions at all levels.
Social Media Team: The meeting appreciated the good work done by the young comrades of our Social Media Team during our Mumbai conference. It was decided to expand the work of the Social Media Team both at the AIBEA level as well as at State and Bankwise-level to further supplement our communication channels. An exclusive meeting will be held for this purpose within the next few months.
Ensuing programmes of AIBEA: The meeting decided to undertake various organizational meetings and programmes as per the following tentative schedule:
Mass Meeting in Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam District Bank Employees Co-ord. Committee organized a mass meeting of our members on 12-6-2023 and large number of employees attend the same.
