Banks to be shut on two Saturdays
Staff get a 15 per cent salary hike
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-05-26 01:29 GMT
Chennai: After a month or so, all nationalised banks will be shut on the second and fourth Saturdays, while working full day on the remaining Saturdays. “RBI has given in-principle approval for it (holidays) and we have written to the government. We hope to get permission soon. We expect it should take 3-4 weeks time to imp-lement it,” Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) chairman T.M. Bhasin said in Mumbai on Monday.
The decision comes after three years of protracted negotiations with banks and RBI, the government. The icing on the cake for around one million employees of 43 banks is a 15 per cent hike in salary. The IBA on Monday signed a wage agreement with unions and officers’ associations that will impose an additional burden of up to Rs 8,370 crore on lenders.
The revision, applicable with effect from November 1, 2012. Commenting on this, C Rajkumar, senior vice-president All India Bank Officers Confederation said PSB employees get a lot less compared to government employees, even though they handle a lot of work pressure. “With this hike, we can attract the best talents to PSBs.”
K. Anandakumar, general secretary, IOB Officers Association, said, “If you compare the salary of a Central government employee and a PSB employee, there is difference of about Rs 20,000 in the entry level itself even after this increase.”