The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), a key bank union, on Thursday raised with the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman the issue of undue delay in appointment of workman/officer directors in Boards of public sector banks.

The issue of improvement in ex-gratia pension paid to pre-1986 retirees/surviving spouses also came up for discussion during the meeting that AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam had with Sitharaman at latter’s North Block office in the capital.

Venkatachalam told BusinessLine after the meeting that the need for exemption of GST on premium paid by retired employees/officers on their group medical insurance policy was also taken up with the Finance Minister.

“We also told her that there are other issues related to improvement in pension scheme in banks which need to be considered by the government”, Venkatachalam said.  

Former Member of Parliament D Raja was also present at the meeting.

The issues around revised guidelines on allocation of amount to staff welfare schemes, particularly in banks where the number of employees have gone up after mergers was also taken up, according to Venkatachalam.

He also said the Finance Minister has readily agreed to meet the representatives of bank unions and indicated that the meeting could happen next month. “Our meeting with the Finance Minister today was very cordial and meaningful”, he added.

Bank strike call

Meanwhile, the Chief Labour Commissioner has convened a meeting on Tuesday next for conciliatory talks around the strike call given by bank unions for June 27, sources said.

It maybe recalled that the United Forum of Bank Unions — representative body of nine bank unions—had given a strike call for June 27. 

The UFBU has demanded the introduction of 5 day banking (All Saturday and Sundays to be bank holidays); scrapping of National Pension System for post April 2010 employees/officers and implementation of old pension scheme for them besides resolution of other pending residual issues.

The crucial issues of bank privatisation or the proposed bank strike did not figure in today’s meeting between AIBEA and the Finance Minister, it is learnt.

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