IBA agrees to 15% annual wage hike for bank staff

The Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on Wednesday reached a settlement with bank employee unions and agreed to a 15% annual wage hike, effective November 1, 2017.

The settlement marks the conclusion of a long-drawn series of negotiations between the association and United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) and could result in a yearly outgo of Rs 7,898 crore for banks.

Sunil Mehta, chief executive, IBA, said, “The agreement reached today provides for a 15% increase in pay slip. To inculcate a sense of competition and also to reward the performance, the concept of performance-linked pay has been introduced for the first time.”

He added that a detailed bipartite settlement and joint note were signed with UFBU, which represents four workmen unions and four officers’ associations and also Bank Karmachari Sena Mahasangh (BKSM), who were parties to the agreement.

Devidas Tuljapurkar, general secretary, Maharashtra State Bank Employees’ Federation, said the Rs 7,898-crore hike in the wage bill would be applicable to all public sector banks (PSBs), old private sector banks, some foreign banks as also those of regional rural banks (RRBs).

“On the same lines wages of RBI (Reserve Bank of India), Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) and GIC (General Insurance Corporation), employees are also expected to be finalised,” he added.

The two parties had last completed the 10th bipartite wage agreement in May 2015, which had resulted in an additional outgo of Rs 4,725 crore every year. The hike became effective from November 2012, when the last five-year bipartite agreement expired.

The latest round of negotiations which ended with the signing of the agreement on Wednesday had been ongoing for close to three years.