Calcutta, June 1: Negotiations for the seventh bipartite wage settlement for banks will commence in August this year, according to sources in the banking industry.

The new settlement will be effective from November 1, 1997 and will be for a three-year period. The sixth bipartite agreement will expire on October 30 this year.

The wage settlement in banks is a major exercise as the rest of the industry take their cue from it. For instance, the insurance industry usually aligns its pay scales along the lines of the banking industry.

All the four major unions representing the employees in the banking industry — All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), Bank Employees Federation of India (Befi), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE) and Indian National Bank Employees Federation (Inbef) — have submitted their charter of demands to the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), which represents the management of the banks.

The unions have not been able to formulate a common charter of demands in spite of indications during last year that this time they would be presenting a united front.

It may be recalled that the last wage agreement ran into rough weather over the `relativity' issue with the bank workmen stating that the bank officers' salaries had risen by a higher percentage than those of the employees.

The demands of the unions are not uniform. For basic pay, NCBE has asked for dearness allowance merger at 1725.5 points of index (for both clerical and subordinate cadre staff), while BEFI wants merger at 1716 points of index. AIBEA has said, "Dearness allowance to be merged at October 1997 index."

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.