Bank employees to to get 15% pay hike

Over 8.5 lakh employees, majorly from public sector banks (PSBs), will get a 15 per cent hike in pay, with the conclusion of the 11th Bipartite Wage Negotiations on Wednesday. After three years of intense negotiations, the UFBU, which represents four bank officer associations and five workman unions, and the IBA on July 22 entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for an annual wage hike of 15 per cent.

“The Indian Banks’ Association is pleased to announce the conclusion of 11th Bipartite Wage Negotiations with bank unions and associations to be effective from November 1, 2017. The agreement reached on Wednesday provides for a 15 per cent increase in pay slip,” IBA Chief Executive Officer Sunil Mehta said in a statement. The 15 per cent hike in wages would be for a period of five years. About 37 banks, including public, private and foreign banks, have mandated the IBA to negotiate with unions on wage hikes for employees.Almost 3.79 lakh officers of public sector banks and close to 5 lakh bank employees of public sector banks, old-generation private banks and foreign banks would get the benefit of the wage hike.

The new wage revision would entail an additional yearly outgo of Rs 7,898 crore for the banks. IBA further said that to inculcate a sense of competition and also to reward the performance, the concept of the performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme has been introduced for the first time. The scheme will be effective from the current financial year. The scheme in public sector banks will be based on operating profit or net profit of the individual bank. It is optional for private and foreign banks. As per the agreement, the PLI would be payable to all employees annually over and above the normal salary payable.