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Public sector banks set for pay hike talks
Employees likely to ask for a 25% salary increase; final decision could take more than a year. Mahua Venkatesh reports.
A salary revision seems to be around the corner for around 700,000 public sector bank employees.
The Indian Banks’ Association and trade unions have begun initial negotiations on on wage revision, and industry sources said employees are likely to ask for a 25% increase in salaries.
Employees received a 17.5% pay hike in the last pay revision announced in 2009. The hike was effective from November 1, 2007.
“Inflation is high and we hope to get a hike, which would take into the account the basic macro economic indicators,” said a member of a banking trade union on the condition of anonymity.
The government is also likely to fast-track the process in the wake of general elections in 2014.
However, the final decision on the quantum of the hike could even take more than a year, said sources.
Senior officials at various public sector banks said state-owned banks could face severe shortage of talent in the coming years as most qualified professionals are reluctant to join the public sector banking space. “If the trend continues, state-owned banks would have very few qualified people left to man the show by 2020,” said the chairman and managing director of a mid-sized government bank. “Very few people who are relatively young look at PSU banks as a lucrative career option.”
State-owned banks require over 60,000 new employees in the current fiscal year. Finance minister P Chidambaram had also said there would be a “huge job opportunity in the banking sector and people must come forward to take up these jobs.”
