Bank employees body wants FinMin to revise wages for staff of RRBs too

On the heels of the wage revision for commercial bank employees, the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) now wants the Finance Ministry to announce wage revision for the sta’ of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs).

This bank employees body is also now demanding that RRBs wage revision be made part of the industry level wage settlement as they are doing the same job like sta’ of commercial banks, CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA told businessline.

AIBEA has written a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking her attention on the matter of RRB wage revision. Finance Minister has also been requested to advise the Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the finance ministry to issue the necessary notification for the same, Venkatachalam said.

The recent Bipartite settlement involving bank employees was signed on March 8 this year.

LAST REVISION

It was in April 2021 that the RRB sta’ and o£cers’ wages were last revised. This came on the heels of the signing of the 11th Bipartite Settlement between IBA and bank employees in November 2020.

Currently RRBs do not give mandate to the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to be covered by the Bipartite settlement.

In 1975, when RRBs were started, they were given lesser wages as compared to bank employees. At the time, when the issue came up, the Supreme Court held that wage parity need to be maintained between commercial bank employees and RRBs sta’.

Hence every time after each Bipartite Settlement, the government/Department of Financial Services issues a notification to extend the same wage increase to RRBs.