The three day all-India bank strike from March 11 stands deferred following the bipartite talks between IBA and bank unions on February 29.

The deferral action has been prompted by IBA’s offer on pay slip cost increase to 15 per cent; encashment of privilege leave at 5 days in a year and assurance to take forward by further discussions the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) demand on 5 day banking.

These offers came during the bipartite talks with Indian Banks Association (IBA) on Saturday.

“This is not a settlement. We have reached a take off point for settlement. Deferring the strike will create a congenial atmosphere and so we are doing this in view of the positive developments”, CH Venkatachalam, Secretary General, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) told BusinessLine .

Offer of pay slip cost increase to 15 per cent is better deal than the earlier offer of 13.5 per cent, sources said. The 15 per cent pay slip cost increase will translate into Rs 7,900 crore, they added.

Also, now IBA has agreed that some improvement in the pension would be worked out for the retirees of earlier settlements period by working out the cost.

A revised offer of performance linked incentive (PLI) was given at 1.37 per cent, 2.74 per cent and 4.11 per cent.

The IBA team was led by Rajkiran Rai G, Chairman of the Negotiating committee.

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