Good news for Bankers! 5-day work week soon

 

The bank employees’ unions have constantly raised their demand for five-day working in the bank, stating to increase the number of week offs.  After repeated petitions for almost a year, now the time is probably near when banks will work only for five days a week. Apart from Sunday, there was a constant demand from the Indian Banking Association to keep it closed on Saturday as well, which has now been approved.

According to the report of The Hindu, the demand pressed by bank employees’ unions for five-day working and to declare all Saturdays as a bank holiday has been accepted by India’s Bank Association in the meeting which was held on July 28.

Now, the bank employees’ Unions body has forwarded the petition to the Finance Ministry for further approval.

If the petition would be approved by the Finance Minister then banks will be working on five days a week, and employees will get all Saturdays off. Besides, the daily working hours of all banks could be extended by 45 minutes, according to the Business Line report.

Decision awaiting

Bankers are hopeful that their proposal will soon get approval from the Finance Department. “Based on some informal conversations with the ministry, it appears that the government may not have any problem in accepting this request of the bankers’ union,” it said.

At present all banks in India work on the first, third and fifth Saturdays of the month. There are holidays on the second and fourth Saturdays. However, as of 2015, banks operate six days a week, including all Saturdays of the month.

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DA Increase of Bankers from August,2023

Dearness Allowance Increase of Bankers from August,2023 : 

Increase of  36 slab i.e. 2.52%.

Total slab: @ 632 i.e. 44.24% w.e.f. August, 2023.

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5 Days Banking Latest Update

 

Banks in India are likely to be open only five days a week, with proposed two day weekly offs, a decision will be made on this on 28 July. The Indian Banking Association (IBA) will likely take the decision in a meeting with United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) next week on Friday, according to a report.

The United Forum of Bank Unions on 19 July said that they took up the issue of introduction of five banking days in earlier discussion. "IBA informed that the issue is under active consideration of the various stakeholders and the same is being pursued. We asked the IBA to expedite the same so that five banking days per week is introduced without further delay," it said.

According to a report by CNBC, both organisations are set to discuss five-day work week, salary hike and requirement of group medical insurance policies for retirees during the 28 July meet.

Now banks are open on two Saturdays a month- the first and third Saturday banks are open in India. The UBFU has sought that working days for banks remain five days a week only, also that employees get 2 days weekly off.

The need for a five day work week came into limelight after government implemented the rule of five working days in the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

The Finance ministry of India had earlier informed that they have no objection to the UBFU's demand to a five day work week for bank employees. The Indian Banking Association had sent a proposal to the government regarding this. According to the proposal, daily working time for bank employees will be increased by 40 minutes, the CNBC report stated.

Regarding the medical insurance of retired bank employees, the UBFU had said that they have agreed to offer a base policy for Rs.2 lakh for retirees with certain ceilings and caps on bed charges/package treatments etc. This was done to ensure that the premium amount is reduced.

"Over and above this, top up scheme up to Rs.10 lakh will be made available on optional basis," CNBC quoted the UBFU. It is to be noted that banks are slated to remain closed for several days in the month of August this year. However, the online banking services and ATMs will remain open to public despite holidays.

The day offs in August include the Saturdays and Sundays in August 2023. Apart from the days mentioned in the table below, banks will remain closed on usual second and fourth Saturday.

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Expected DA for Bank Employees from August 2023

The Dearness allowance to bank employees and dearness relief to bank pensioners is paid under the 11th bipartite settlement between bank unions and IBA (Indian Bank’s Association) signed on 11th November 2020. The settlement is effective from November 1, 2017. The dearness allowance is paid based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) number published by the Labor Bureau of India.

The Dearness Allowance (DA) for bankers for the period from August 2023 shall be based on CPI(IW) numbers from April 2023 to June 2023. The latest CPI(IW) data with the base year 2016 is as under.

Month            AICPIN/CPI(IW)

April 2023       134.20

May 2023        134.70

June 2023         yet to be declared 

If CPI(IW) remains at the same level during June 2023 as in May 2023, the DA to bank employees shall be payable for 623 DA slabs as against the existing 596 DA slabs i.e. an increase of 27 DA slabs.

Hence, the Expected DA for bank employees from August 2023 is 43.61%. The existing DA rate for the period of May 2023 to July 2023 is 41.72%. Hence there shall be an increase of 1.89% in dearness allowance for the period from August 2023 to October 2023.

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Bank employees keen on early start to wage talks, says BEFI leader

Bank employees numbering several lakh, across public, regional rural and old generation private banks in the country, are keen on an early start to the next round of wage negotiations between the unions that represent the workforce and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

“Wage revision is due since November 2022. Since the last, 11th bipartite settlement effective November 2017 (reached in November 2020), we observe banks are not smoothly authorising IBA to start negotiations,” General Secretary of the Bank Employees’ Federation of India (BEFI) Debasish Basu Chaudhury said in an interaction.

While some banks delay their mandate to IBA, a few authorise the association to negotiate only up to a particular payscale as beyond that, they desire to have their own arrangements with the officers, he said, adding this time too when the unions insisted on launch of discussions, IBA said most banks were yet to give their mandate. “A few days ago, the United Forum of Bank Unions had urged IBA to start negotiations pending whatever mandate. This is where we are standing,” he said. In the last settlement, a 15% pay increase formed the core of the agreement.

Five-day week

Mr. Chaudhury, who was in Hyderabad for BEFI Telangana unit’s second conference recently, said the delay in wage talks is not the only concern as the bank workforce is also awaiting implementation of a five-day week in banks agreed at the last bipartite settlement.

The five-day week — with all Saturdays being holidays as against the second and fourth now — was a long-standing demand of unions and came in the backdrop of the employees and officers hard-pressed amid changes in government policies. Their numbers have reduced drastically and non-banking business such as mutual funds, insurance have increased and targets for the same set for employees. A reduction in number of banks has also meant closure of thousands of branches 2019 onwards. With the workforce logging more hours daily, work-life balance has become more important than before, he said, pointing out to how Central, many State governments as well as stock exchanges follow a five-day week.

The bank unions have already authorised IBA to increase work hours by 40 minutes a day to compensate for the time reduced on account of all Saturday holidays. The proposal is before the Centre with an understanding that the Finance Ministry will discuss it with other stakeholders. He expressed confidence that all concerned will consent, especially alternative banking delivery channels becoming popular.

Besides better wages and other demands of employees, BEFI is fighting for strengthening of banks, including RRBs and those private, measures to safeguard public money and opposed to privatisation of banks, he said.

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Bank employees to get 5-day work week — Finance Ministry may soon release notification

 

Government banks will soon be allowed to work for only five days in a week, sources told CNBC Awaaz. Finance Ministry is likely to give an approval on this soon, sources said. Earlier, it was reported that Indian Banks Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Bank Employees (UFBEs) have agreed in principle to a 5-day work week, but for which the total working hours have to be increased by 40 minutes per day.

Currently, bank employees work on alternate Saturdays. Banks remain open on the first and third Saturdays of every month.

According to report, the IBA had sent a proposal to the government regarding this demand and notification can soon be issued with wage board revision.

Meanwhile, banks across India will remain closed for 11 days in the month of May. Several holidays are scheduled in May due to various festivals including Buddha Purnima and Maharana Pratap Jayanti, among others. Customers planning to visit their banks in May should consult the bank holiday calendar to avoid any inconvenience.

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DA increased for Bankers from May 2023

 

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DA increased for Bankers from Nov 2022

DA for Bankers has increased for the quarter November 2022 to January 2022.

CPI data for the month of July, August and September 2022 has been released, which is as under:

July 2022	129.90
August 2022	130.20
September 2022	131.30

 DA for bank employees is linked to CPI data. Based on the CPI data for last 3 months (July 2022 to September 2022), DA payable to bankers will be 556 slabs for the quarter Nov 22 to Jan 23. This is 30 slabs from the previous quarter, which was 526.

As such, the Dearness Allowance for bankers will be 38.92% from the next quarter starting from November 2022. DA for the last quarter was 36.82%. Accordingly, there is an increase of 2.10% in the DA for the upcoming quarter.

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