Bank employees at public sector banks (PSBs) can expect a salary hike of 15% to 20% and implementation of a five-day work week by the middle of December as the 12th bipartite settlement talks between bank unions and associations and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) have reached the final stage, said a Financial Express report quoting four people aware of the matter.
“This is the first time in the history of negotiations that the offer (for wage hike) is starting with 15%. It (wage hike) will likely be between 15% and 20%,” said sources at the IBA. According to them, the announcement of the five-day work-week will either be made along with the wage hike notification or soon after that by the government or the IBA.
The current wage agreement for public sector bank employees ended on November 1, 2022, and since then the IBA and the unions representing bank employees have been negotiating a new wage agreement.
Meanwhile, as per the report citing a source in the finance ministry, the revision in the salary and change in work days will be also applicable to regional rural banks.
Earlier, in July 2020, over 800,000 bank employees got a hike of 15% in their salary packages, with the IBA and the United Forum of Bank Unions inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to resolve the three-year-long contentious issue of wage revision.
The report quoted another source who is part of the negotiation process as saying that the IBA and the bank unions will soon have a final meeting where the two sides will sign a MoU, which will subsequently be sent to the finance ministry for the last approval.
“The salary hike will be somewhere above 15%. We are negotiating hard as the PSU banks have to take a final hit on the balance sheets,” sources said. The finance ministry had initially asked public sector lenders to conclude negotiations by December 1.
The implementation of the five-day work week will result in branches remaining closed on weekends. Sources believe that bank employees may be required to work for extended hours during weekdays to compensate for lost working hours. One should note that even when banks are closed they can do financial transactions via net banking or any other modes of digital payments.
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