One more round of conciliation meeting held today
“Vide our Circular No. 20 Dated 08-12-2021 we had informed our unions and
members about the conciliation held by the Addl. Chief Labour Commissioner,
Ministry of Labour, Government of India on 08-12-2021.
As suggested and advised by the Addl. CLC, the IBA had convened a virtual
meeting on 10-12-2021 with our Unions wherein also we had reiterated our
viewpoints against the move of the Government to amend the Banking Laws
to enable privatisation of the Banks. We had urged upon the IBA that if they
would like the strike to be averted, then they should prevail upon the
Government not to proceed with the introduction of the Bill in the current
session of the Parliament.
In this background, the adjourned conciliation meeting was held today in Delhi
before Shri. S.C. Joshi, the Addl. CLC. From our side, representatives of
AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBOC and INBEF were present.
Representatives of BKSM, who have also served the strike notice, were also
present.
From IBA, Mr. Gopal Murli Bhagat, Dy. Chief Executive was present. From the
Ministry of Finance, Government of India Mr. Sameer Shukla, Joint Secretary
and Mr. S.R. Meher, Director from DFS were present.
During the conciliation, the IBA appealed that looking to the present scenario
of the banking industry in the pandemic situation, the Unions may defer the
strike.
The Finance Ministry representatives explained that except the announcement
in the Budget, no concrete steps have been taken by the Government and
even though the Bill has been listed in the agenda, they were not sure when
and whether the Bill will be taken up by the Parliament and hence the Unions
should not proceed with their call for strike.
From our side, our representatives explained that in the larger interest of our
country, its economy and the people, public sector banks must continue to
play the leading role and measures like privatisation of banks are undesirable.
We also pointed out that the Unions have given the call for strike only because
the Privatisation Bill has been listed in the agenda and the Unions would be
inclined to reconsider the strike call only if the Government could assure that
the Bill would not be introduced in the current session.
We further stated that the Government must initiate wider discussions on the
issue with all stake-holders including bank employees, officers and the trade
unions before such measures are taken by the Government.
We also expressed our strong resentment that while the UFBU has given the
strike notice on the IBA and Government, and when the issue is seized in
conciliation at the level of Addl. CLC, the individual bank managements have
been contacting the unions in different banks and even the general rank and
file employees and officers and asking them not to participate in the strike
which are acts of unfair labour practice and in effect interference in the right of
the members of the unions to engage in concerted activities for the purposes
of collective bargaining and hence the same is prohibited under the Industrial
Disputes Act. We urged upon the Addl. CLC to advice the IBA to suitably
advice the member banks in this regard.
Since the Government and IBA representatives could not give any assurance
regarding the non-introduction of the Bill as sought for by us, we regretted our
inability to accede to their appeal to withdraw our strike call.
The Addl. CLC advised the parties to pursue the issue further so that some
amicable solution could be worked out to avert the strike and advised the IBA
to further continue the dialogue with the Unions. The IBA assured him that
one more round of meeting would be held with the Unions on 15th instant.
Addl. CLC said he would also hold one more round of conciliation on 15th
instant.
Comrades, it would be clear to all of us from the above proceedings
that the Government could not make any assurance as desired by us
and hence we need to go ahead with the strike all.
Accordingly, we request all our unions and members to move ahead
and make the strike action on 16th and 17th December, 2021 a total
success.”
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