S No
|
Central
Government Staff
|
Bank
Staff
|
1
|
Government
Employees have a greater say in implementation of all policies and programmes
of the government. They manage the routine affairs of the
government. They only make the government visible to the common man.
They are the people who are running the government show for all practical
purposes.
Few
disgruntled elements among the government employees here and there are
sufficient to bring down the popularity of an elected government.
So, no
government will take the risk of displeasing them.
|
Bank staff, who are
considered as the central pillar of any country's economy, have been reduced
to voiceless creatures in our country. All social welfare schemes are dumped
on them, by various governments, without giving them any choice or a say.
They also have made
themselves cheap in the eyes of the society, by undertaking many jobs that
are remotely connected to banking. Their own managements also have to
take a major share of the blame for this situation, because they think that
in order to face stiff competition in the market and yet survive and
flourish, banks must volunteer to do many jobs, even if they are not
remunerative and result in wastage of precious human resources and loss of
money.
|
2
|
Government
is a virtual monopoly in many fields. Moreover, the government is in a
commanding position to determine the destiny of many sectors and their
survival.
|
Though banks are also
equally powerful and very important to the nation, because of intense,
unhealthy and unequal competition, the mid-sized and small banks find it
difficult to remain competitive and profit-making.
|
3
|
Central
government employees/pensioners (48 lakh persons in service and 55 lakh
pensioners) constitute a good size of the population.
|
In comparison, bank staff
in service (numbering about 10 lakhs) and another 2.50 lakh pensionersspread
over the entire country are
numerically very less.
|
4
|
If we include those
working in state governments and central/state PSUs and also the pensioners
who are anticipated to derive benefit out of CPC, they add up to another 2.50
crores.
|
Same as above.
|
S No
|
Central
Government Staff
|
Bank
Staff
|
5
|
If we
include their family members also, the total number of votes in their command
will cross 14 crores. This is a very huge vote bank that any party in
power cannot afford to displease.
|
Bank staff, pensioners
and their family members form a small vote bank, which is immaterial to the
party in power.
|
6
|
Pay
Revision is determined by a Pay Commission that is constituted by the Central
Government.
|
Pay revision is settled
through bipartite talks between IBA and the body of majority Trade Unions
(UFBU) at the national level.
|
7
|
The
Central Pay Commission is headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
|
Union leaders are mostly
self-appointed - not democratically
elected - and
they claim to represent all sections of staff and pensioners. Moreover,
even those who retired from bank service long ago, are participating in the
wage revision talks, making mockery of the whole process.
|
8
|
Apart from the recognized Trade Unions and Associations, all
employees individually or as a group can submit their oral/written demands
and suggestions to the Commission directly. For this purpose, a
separate web site was developed by the 7th Pay Commission and unrestricted access to this site was provided
to everyone. This was one of the best steps taken by the Commission.
|
Individual members or a group of individuals arenot allowed to submit their demands, views and suggestions directly
to IBA. Even if they volunteer to do so, IBA never takes cognizance of
such inputs, howsoever relevant, useful, reasonable and logical they
are. Thus, the so called union leaders occupy the whole space by
themselves.
|
S No
|
Central
Government Staff
|
Bank
Staff
|
9
|
Besides,
the commission members visit many parts of the nation - north to south and
east to west - and personally hear the views of all the stakeholders.
At the time of such visits, the Commission also receives memoranda and
petitions submitted by the employees, pensioners and their
groups/associations. If necessary, the individuals and representatives of
such groups/associations are called to headquarters of the Commission for
deposing before the full Commission. Their deposition is properly documented
and preserved.
|
Neither the IBA officials
nor the chief negotiators from the unions/associations visit many parts of
the country so as to ascertain the views, aspirations and demands of
individual members. Yet, if any member or a group of members comes forward
to share their views with the union leaders and make suggestions, they are
discouraged and resisted. These central trade union leaders refuse to
meet those who want to meet them in person for this purpose. Worse
still, if any member sends an email to union's official email address in this
respect, the sender's email ID is blocked! IBA also does the same
thing.
|
10
|
The Pay
Commission recommends for merger of the entire Dearness Allowance outstanding
as on the day preceding the date of enforcement of new scales with Basic Pay.
|
During the recent
settlements, only that part of D.A. as existing 1 year before the effective
date of the wage revision is allowed to be merged with Basic Pay. This
results in lower Basic Pay, Allowances, Total Salary and superannuation
benefits like Gratuity, Leave Encashment, Commuted Pension, Monthly Pension
and Family Pension. It is a huge lifetime loss to all employees and
pensioners. In addition, it results in fixation of lower pay scales in every wage accord in future.
|
11
|
Pension
undergoes automatic upward revision with each wage revision.
|
Pension once fixed
remains the same. Even the revision made in D.A. with the changes in
Consumer Price Index gradually becomes a pittance, because the Basic Pension
does not get revised periodically.
|
12
|
Government
employees' salaries are charged to the Consolidated Fund of GOI, without any
reference to revenue receipts, revenue deficit and fiscal deficit.
|
Wage
revision of bank staff is always linked to net profit of member banks.
It is atrocious to note that Bad Debts written off during the past 10 years
is a mind boggling figure about which nobody is willing to talk.
Similarly, provisions kept for NPAs at the end of each year far exceed the
total establishment expenses for the whole year. This is a trend
observed during the past 6 years. As we all know, all the NPAs are not
irrecoverable. Therefore,
the amount of provisions made during the year for NPAs shall be added back to
the net profit, so as to arrive at the true 'cash profit' for the year.
Moreover, the government
must adequately compensate all the banks (in monetary terms) who faithfully
implement the social lending schemes and social welfare schemes of the
government.
|
