MUMBAI, SEPT 21: The Indian Banks Association (IBA) has warned unions that member banks may pull out of further wage negotiations if there was any deviation from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) entered into in March last. IBA, which is the representative of bank managements, has again appealed to the bank unions, which are operating under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) to accept the agreement under the MoU.``Any deviation in the understanding and interpretation of the agreed points will amount to digressing from the MoU in which case the possibility of the member banks, who are already under tremendous financial pressure, pulling out en masse from the negotiations cannot be ruled out,'' IBA chief executive and secretary M N Dandekar said in a statement issued in Mumbai on Tuesday.IBA has reiterated its stand of sticking to the MoU and has asked the bank unions, which are operating under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), to accept the same. "IBA is not willing tocompromise on the costing of pension issue. The costing at 26.5 per cent of the pensionable salary would be included in the total load of 12.25 per cent as already agreed under the MoU," Dandekar said.Describing the trade unions' argument as "factually incorrect" and "misleading", the IBA statement said: "it is unfortunate that unions instead of promoting a positive collective approach to the issues are attributing motives to the efforts to IBA in arriving at a negotiated settlement."The unions have been arguing that costing of pension for the purpose of wage revision should be restricted to only 10 per cent of the basic pay per annum and the additional cost of 16.5 per cent cannot be carved out of the wage packet. This means that the additional cost will be over and above 12.25 per cent.The unions' argument is that if the entire pension settlement is included in the total wage load, only 73.5 per cent of 12.25 per cent would be left for distribution among the various wage components. Referring tothe adverse effect of the current MoU on those still subscribing to the contributory provident fund scheme, Dandekar said enough time was given to them to move to the pension scheme."The employees were fully aware that pension scheme offered better terms and if still some of them chose to continue with contributory provident fund, it was their own decision," Dandekar said, adding that wage revision had to be uniform and there cannot be two sets of revisions for the two schemes."The wage revision has to be uniform and there cannot be one set of revision for those who do not opt for pension scheme and another who opt for it and these circumstances had obviously been taken into consideration by the MoU of March 11.. If certain employees have chosen not to opt for pension scheme, it was a matter of their individual discretion and this cannot impact the fixation of wages," the IBA statement said.
