FinMin seeks status report on wage revision talks from PSBs

NEW DELHI: Keen to close wage negotiations in public sector banks by November 1, 2017, the Finance Ministry has asked the lenders to present status report on salary hike talks with their employee unions.

The chief executives of PSBs have been asked to intimate the ministry about "the present status/action taken by them so as to conclude the negotiations/next wage settlement by the effective date i.e November 1, 2017 positively".

In January, the PSBs were asked to initiate the process of negotiations with the employees and conclude it prior to the effective date of November 1, 2017.

The communication to PSBs regarding wages comes in the backdrop of banks union threatening to join the strike called by trade unions on September 2 to protest against what they call anti-people policies of the government.

The wage revision of public sector bank employees has been due since November 2012. In the last wage negotiation between PSU banks employee unions and bank management, Indian Banks' Association (IBA) had settled at 15 per cent hike.

There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a combined employee strength of about eight lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.

Recently, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had said all public sector banks tend to over-pay at the bottom but under-pay their top executives, even as he rued, albeit jokingly, himself being "under-paid".