Bank officers’ union launches nationwide movement against privatisation


Bank officers’ union on Tuesday launched nationwide movement against proposed privatisation of stat-owned lenders. ‘Bank Bachao Desh Bachao Rally’ was held at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Tuesday attended by officers and other stakeholders from various parts of the country, the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) said in a statement.

Addressing the rally, AIBOC General Secretary Soumya Datta appealed to the government to withdraw the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which has been listed for introduction and passing in the winter session of Parliament.


“In case the government tables and passes the bill paving the way for the privatisation of the public sector banks, the bank officers will unite all the stakeholders of the banking sector and launch a nationwide agitation,” he said, urging the bankers to draw inspiration from the farmers movement.


Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting Budget 2021-22 earlier this year had announced the privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs) as part of disinvestment drive to garner Rs 1.75 lakh crore. The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, to be introduced during the session is expected to bring down the minimum government holding in the PSBs from 51 per cent to 26 per cent.


In the last concluded session, Parliament passed a bill to allow privatisation of state-run general insurance companies. The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021, removed the requirement of the central government to hold at least 51 per cent of the equity capital in a specified insurer.


The Act, which came into force in 1972, provided for the acquisition and transfer of shares of Indian insurance companies and undertakings of other existing insurers in order to serve better the needs of the economy by securing the development of general insurance business.

Government think-tank NITI Aayog has already suggested two banks and one insurance company to Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment for privatisation. According to sources, Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank are likely candidates for the privatisation.

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Strike call by union this month to protest against merger of PSU banks

Days after bank unions called off a three-day bank strike from March 11, two unions called for another bank strike on March 27 to oppose the mega merger of PSU banks. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced yesterday that the Union Cabinet has approved the plan to merge 10 PSU banks into four larger banks. The merger comes into effect from April 1 this year.

The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) have given a joint call for an all-India bank strike on March 27. Their demands include stopping the proposed merger of 10 PSU banks, stopping the privatisation of IDBI Bank and rollback of banking reforms, recovery of bad loans and increase of interest rate on deposits.

C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA, said, the unions have planned series of protests this month peaking with the strike on March 27. The Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) has also announced a fortnight-long agitation programme to protest against the merger."Banks themselves face problems due to huge pile of bad loans. While the public sector banks made a total gross profit of Rs.150,000 crore for the year ended March 31, 2019, because of total provisions towards bad loans, etc. amounting to Rs.216,000 crore, the banks ended in a net loss of Rs.66,000 crore," Venkatachalam said.

Sitharaman, on the other hand, said the merger plan would enhance customer convenience, better branch service, higher credit flow, and lesser time in loan sanctions. Greater scale and synergy through consolidation would lead to cost benefits which should enable the PSBs enhance their competitiveness and positively impact the Indian banking system, a Finance Ministry statement said.

As per the amalgamation plan, United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce would be merged with Punjab National Bank, making the proposed entity the second largest public sector bank. It was decided to merge Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank, while Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank. Similarly, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank are to be consolidated with Union Bank of India.





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Bank Wage Revision- Latest Circular by Banks Unions



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Bank, insurance unions threaten strike during Parliament’s winter session

The Co-ordination Committee of Bank, Insurance and Finance Sector Unions (CCBIFU) on Saturday said a would be called during the winter session of the Parliament if the government does not revise its policies on banking and insurance sectors.

“If the government does not revise its policies on banking and insurance sector and would continue with their existing policies, the CCBIFU will decide to go on a strike during the winter session of the Parliament in December, 2018,” Committee Chairman C.H. Venkatachalam said in a statement.
The Committee was formed to protest against what are termed as attacks on the banking and insurance sectors like foreign direct investment (FDI), disinvestment and other sectoral reforms.

The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA), General Insurance Employees All India Association (GIEAIA) and All India LIC Employees Federation (AILICEF) constitute the commitee.
While Venkatachalam, the General Secretary of AIBEA, is the Committee’s Chairman, K. Govindan, General Secretary of the GIEAIA is the Convener.
According to Venkatachalam, banks represent hard earned savings of the common people.

“Today it is more than Rs 115 lakh crore. If banks are privatised, the people’s money will be in the hands of the capitalists. The only problem in the banks is the huge bad loans due from the corporate borrowers,” he said.
“Instead of taking action to recover the bad loans, banks are sought to be handed over to them. In LIC also there are huge bad investments which are non-performing. There must be a thorough parliamentary probe into all these investments,” he added.
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Bank unions call for all-India strike on August 22

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella organisation of five employee unions and four officer unions of state-run banks in the country, has given notice of their decision to go on nationwide strike on 22 August 2017 to protest reforms in the banking sector and other issues.
 
"The UFBU has observed that instead of taking urgent remedial measures to recover the alarmingly increasing bad loans in the banks which are threatening to drive the banks into a serious crisis. Steps like memorandum of understanding (MoU), prompt corrective action (PCA), Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, Ordnance on non-performing assets (NPAs), and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) are only aimed to clean the balance sheets at the cost of the banks, which represent hard earned savings of the people, instead of recovering money," says CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA).
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Bank workers to go on strike on February 28

Around 10 lakh bankers will now go on strike on February 28 to demand recovery of bank loans that have since turned bad and action against willful loan defaulters as well as solution to cash crunch post-demonetization, a top union leader said on Tuesday.

"Earlier, three unions had given the strike call. But now all the nine bank unions have agreed to go on strike and hence the February 7 strike has been withdrawn," C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), told IANS.

He said around 10 lakh bankers -- ranging from officers to clerks -- belonging to nine unions will resort to strike on February 28.

The three unions that gave the February 7 strike call were AIBEA, All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA) and the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI).
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Bank employees to hold all India strike on February 7

Three bank employees' organisations are planning to conduct all India strike on February 7, 2017, seeking the banks and the government to address issues concerning demonetisation and bad loans.

The All India Bank Employees'Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) have issued a joint circular to its members announcing various protest including joint mass demonstrations, dharana and one-day strike starting from January 30, 2017.

The organisations alleged that the cash crunch is continuing and most of the ATMs are still non-functional, which lead to tension in banks. They alleged that while everyone appreciated the hard work of the bank employees, officers and managers in managing the situation in the banks, there is reluctance and hesitation in extending proper compensation for the extra hours of additional work.

"When the ordinary and common people are made to face such problems in the name of curbing black money, the big defaulters of bank loans are getting scot-free. No action is being taken against the increasing menace of huge bad loans in the banks except provisions from profits, write-offs and desperate sale of NPAs," says the circular.

The demands they put forward include the demonetisation issues such as ensuring supply of adequate cash to all banks including regional rural banks and co-operative banks; restore all ATMs immediately and ensure availability of cash in ATMs; announce CBI enquiry on instances of huge new currency notes with some big persons when branches are starving on cash and stop diluting autonomy of RBI in currency management.
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Nationwide Bank Strike On July 29

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), consisting of nine trade unions of bank employees and officers, has called a one-day strike on July 29 to oppose the banking reform policies of the Central Government. 

In a statement, CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association, said the notice for the strike was served on the Indian Banks’ Association on July 11 by the UFBU.

Close to 10 lakh bank employees and officers working in public sector banks, old private banks, regional rural banks, foreign banks and co-operative banks are members of one of the nine trade unions.

On July 11, the Delhi High Court had restrained the State Sector Bank Employees' Association (SSBEA) and the All-India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) from proceeding with their strike notice.

The court also restrained the associations as well as their members from proceeding with a strike on July 12-13; the ruling effectively accepted a plea by SBI associate banks.

The AIBEA and the All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) had planned to hold joint programes to protest against the proposed merger and consolidation of banks, particularly the five associate banks with SBI, and the privatization of IDBI Bank.

S Nagarajan, General Secretary, AIBOA, said the strike on July 29, among others, is to oppose privatization of public sector banks and regional rural banks, consolidation among public sector banks and licenses to corporate to start banks.
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ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION (AIBOA)

AIBOA - HISTORY AND CHALLENGING PERSPECTIVES

In its chequered history of many battles through sacrifices by countless warriors,
AIBEA never compromised or gave up even momentarily its objective of rendering lead and initiatives to every section of Bank employees. It is a point of history that from Bank level to the Pillai committee AIBEA not only represented officers' case logically but also offered its hand of co-operation to government and Bankers to run the Industry effectively realising the need for co-ordinating officers and employees in a service Industry like Banking for realisation of common objectives of nationalisation of the Industry transparency of operations, focus for credit to needy sector and so on and so forth and from these tasks the need for consolidation of the interwined movement from all sides was practiced as an objective from the early day of AIBEA. AIBOA is the legacy of this mighty AIBEA.

AIBOA took it birth from the conscious decision of Baroda General Council of AIBEA in 1979. A new direction to Bank employees movement was enjoined on it, due very much to nationalisation of Banks the task was given for implementation in all Banks and States. Eventhough it is a fact that many stalwarts of AIBEA in yester years like Com.Romesh Chakraborti, Com.K.K.Mundal, Com.Tarakeshwar, com.P.L.Syal, Com.V.K.,Krishnamoorthy, Com.P.K.Porwal, Com.A.Sundar Rao Com.H.N.Puri, Com.Roshan Lal Malhotra and the legendanary figure Com.H.L.Parwana were themselves officers and executives, who were one of those who founded AIBEA and contributed to its growth and consolidation. It is a fact that the decision to form AIBOA took a colossal time of 10 years after nationalisation and a far fetched national debate of very slow and negative dimensions which delayed the process of AIBOA formation.
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