The Hindu : Kerala News : Cooperative bank employees to go on strike

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Cooperative bank employees to go on strike

Staff Reporter

Three-day protest against sabotaging of pay reforms report from today

KANNUR: The District Cooperative Bank Employees' Federation-Kerala (DCBEF-K) will go on a three-day strike from June 22 to protest against the `sabotaging' of the pay reforms report by bank managements and Minister for Cooperation M.V. Raghavan.

The federation, affiliated to the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), would go on an indefinite strike in District Cooperative Banks (DCB) if the authorities refused to settle the issue, its State general secretary P.V. Balakrishnan warned at a press conference here on Tuesday. The pay reforms of DCB employees had been overdue for the last three years, he said adding that such a long delay was unheard of in the history of labour relations.

The Minister had announced in a meeting of union leaders on July 14 that the report would not be implemented in toto, Mr. Balakrishnan said. He alleged that the Minister had modified the report submitted by the trilateral committee comprising representatives of the Government, managements and employees.

Mr. Balakrishnan said that the Minister was adamant that the pay increase would be only eight per cent of the basic pay while the report recommended eight per cent of the basic pay and half of the dearness allowance calculated together. The Minister had also refused to sanction one-year arrears to the employees, he said adding that this amounted to denial of wages.

The federation general secretary said that the management and the Minister were against pay reforms as some banks were incurring huge losses. Challenging the authorities to prove that employees were responsible for the losses, Mr. Balakrishnan alleged that mismanagement by governing bodies of some DCBs were the causes of the crisis that hit them. In most of the DCBs employees could mobilise deposits far higher than the targets because of their commitment, he claimed.

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