BANK PENSIONERS ACTION FORUM

[PM]

Respected  Elders, brothers sisters and friends.     

              

For your kind notice and information

Regarding  Bank Pension Updation

Bank Pensioners' pension can be categorized under two different schemes.

1) State Bank Pension scheme

2) Other Nationalized banks scheme

State bank of India had extended the pension scheme right from its inception.  The pension scheme in Imperial Bank of India has continued even after its conversion in 1955 as State Bank of India  

Pension rules and regulations in SBI has statutory value. Pension updation is a corollary to wage revision as pension itself is a deferred wage and revision of it need not be construed as an amendment requiring parliament approval. 

For negotiating pensioners demand with Indian Bankers Association ie IBA, only serving Employees unions and Officers' Associations are allowed to represent and not the Pensioners' forums. They have not clinched the demand of updation of pension till date and solved the issue.

2) In all other public sector banks, there was no pension scheme upto the year 1993.  After a decade long struggle it was agreed in 1993 after the introduction of pension scheme in RBI in 1990 with retrospective effect ie from 1.1.1986 

Bank employees and officers had joined in the scheme after surrendering their Employers Provident fund as corpus for pension fund. It is inline with the RBI pension scheme 

Though bipartite wage settlements for banks had signed and new pay scales effected in  1987/92/97/2002/2007/2012/, pension had not been updated accordingly after every wage settlement.

In general pension is based on last year 50% average basic  In sbi, for officers, pension was reduced by introducing 50-40% upto a cutoff basic.  Ceiling for pension was also imposed in the earlier period to reduce payable pension 

Dearness relief for pension basic is calculated on the basis of consumer index as paid to Employees. But it is applied once in 6 months.

Normally in wage settlement, certain portion of Dearness allowance is merged with basic after loading some increase agreed.  So basic is revised and 

those who retire after a settlement will get more pension basic due to the revision in basic.

As the new pay scale had changed after wage settlements on the following dates as on 1.11.87, 1.11.92, 1.11.97, 1.11.2002, 1.11.2007, 1.11.2012 & 1.11.2017.  Person who had retired before these days gets lower pension than those who retires after a settlement 

even though their grade service and the stage in pay scale are same.

This difference in pension is due to the non revision of earlier pension basic accordingly at the time of wage revision. Among pensioners,  

The pensioner at 60 y of age retired in Oct 2017 gets lower pension than his age junior retired in Nov 2017 ie one month later , even though their other factors are the same  Similarly even though all other factors like service, grade and pay scale stage remain the same,

Pension of those retired in Nov 1987 and afterwards and age around 93 now gets pension

< that of the  pensioner aged around 87 now and retired in Nov 1993 and afterwards

< The pension of the   Pensioner aged 83 now retired in Nov 1997 and afterwards 

< that of those aged 78 now & retired in Nov 2002 and afterwards

<That of those aged 73 now & retired in Nov 2007 & afterwards

<That of those aged 68 now & retired in Nov 2012 and afterwards

<That of those aged 63 now and retired in Nov 2017 and afterwards( after the current 11th bipartite settlement)

This disparity arises due to non revision of pension after wage settlement. ie due to non updation of pension

Wages and pension are inseparable. Pension is nothing but a deferred wage .On every month, pension fund contribution for each and every employee is to be calculated and debited to bank charges along with the payment of monthly wages, 

Out of this allocation and the accumulation in pension corpus only bank pays pension, not from commercially generated income of the bank as Fin Minister replied to a question and also not from central govt treasury. 

Perhaps Fin Minister would have meant that for  running a business establishment, all its expenses, like premises rent, Electricity, payment of interest for capital and employees salary,,, everything has to be met out by commercially generated income of the establishment.

IF any additional provision is needed, it is to be made before out of the operating profit of the bank. Hence there is no financial burden or liability directly for Central government as in the case of CPC.

While in the service of central, state governments and in the service of University as well as in RBI & NABARD, no such anomaly arises, how this issue crops up in sbi and other bank services?

ie, due to non updation of pension. ie for 30 years 

Due to non revision, our senior citizens  suffer a lot in their old age. Getting justice by courts gets delayed for years together.

Those who as bankers served for the economic development of our country and meticulously implemented every programme of the nation with such dedication not lacking behind of any other services as finance minister herself recognized and recollected, are suffering a lot due to this partiality shown towards bank Pensioners'.

We appeal to you to lend  your moral support to our pleading to central government and it’s Department of financial service to render justice to bank pensioners issue of updation of pension.

M.Somasundaram 

Dy Mgr SBI Retd

Admin

 Bank Pensioners Action Forum

[sastry n s]

Le us congratulate him. The message is apt, self-contained and well-drafted. This can be sent to the Finance Minister as the issues are clearly understandable in one reading.

[nook raju]

Thank you sir for your detailed information.

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[Sarangapani Rao]

Sir, 

Well explained pellucidly without giving an iota of opportunity for any misinterpretation nor any ambiguity. This should be brought to the conscious knowledge of the FM & PM ( other bureaucrats      steeped in bumbledom  in the officialdom  knowing full well the truth ,out of vested interest, may not apprise the minister correctly). 

 Blatant disregard to equity should be brought to light. 

What is sauce for the goose must sauce for the gander also! 

Sarangapani, IB, vrs 2001.

  

[Vathsala Lakshman]

Mr M. Somasundaram has brought out in unambiguous terms the Pension Issues of SBI and how the pension scheme in SBI varies from the other public sector banks' scheme formalized in 1993, pinpointing the aspect that the SBI act of 1955 itself -  that heralded the nationalization of the Imperial Bank of India  -  incorporates the provisions relating to pension administration in SBI, its origin traceable to the period even before the amalgamation of the Presidency Banks as the Imperial Bank of India.  He has aptly highlighted the 50%-40% differentiation in pension payment as running contrary to the provisions contained in the SBI Act 1955. His emphatic observation that pension represents deferred wages and every wage revision ipso facto should be followed by updation of pension is axiomatic and in my view the failure to implement this for well over three decades is a serious dereliction of duty by the top Management of the Bank that calls for action against those who have put the pensioners and their families to great hardship over such a long period as three to four decades. It is sad that even after the FM has given the green signal at the IBA's  AGM in Nov. last, SBI has not cared to rectify its past mistakes and is complacent that its procrastination of pension updation will be condoned by the DFS. One wonders whether SBI is aware that it is an instrumentality of the STATE and has to carry out welfare measures in the interest of its employees, as adumbrated in the concept of welfare state ideology and in a rationalistic interpretation of the directive principles of state policy. 

K.LAKSHMAN.

[Ramanathan Venkateswaran]

Excellent write up! Will the IBA and Govt listen to our woes? Will we be able to see the light of the day during our life time? R Venkateswaran CB SVRS 2001

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[Mattar Kamalaksha Kini]

Very well drafted and crystal clear . This letter should pave the way for understanding the retirees grievances clearly. 

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MKKINI