The Hindu Business Line : Bank unions flay Minister's remarks

The coordination committee of the State Banks' Staff Union (SBSU) and State Bank of India Officers' Association has taken strong exception to the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram's comments on the circumstances leading to the ongoing strike by SBI employees.

According to Mr John Joseph of the SBSU, the Finance Minister will be better advised to think a way out of the stalemate rather than seek to mislead public through ill-conceived statements on the intent of the strike that entered the seventh day on Sunday.

The 2.5-lakh-strong employees have been demanding pension at 50 per cent of the last drawn pay; commutation, index-linked DA on pension and family pension on par with industry; upgradation of basic pension of all past retirees taking into account the current merger of index at 2,288 points and a DA formula revised on par with industry for all past retirees.

Section 50 of the SBI Act, 1955 has clearly specified that a the SBI Pension Fund leave behind enough balance that could be tapped to revise the pension structure and make out payments as demanded by the unions. The fund had a corpus of Rs 8,820 crore as on March 31, 2005, and had accrued interest income Rs 660 crore during that year alone.

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