The recent settlement entered into between the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has ignored bank retirees totally, All India Bank Pensioners’ and Retirees’ Confederation (AIBPARC) national president K.V. Acharya has said.
Addressing a meeting of bank retirees here, Mr. Acharya said the basic pension of a bank employee, who had retired in 1996 when pension scheme was introduced, remained at the same level even today. It has not been revised even once, while the salaries have been revised four times. As a result, retirees are finding it difficult to take care of even medical care, leave alone a decent life, he added.
Mr. Acharya strongly criticised IBA’s stand that there was no contractual relationship between employers and retirees, and that pension was merely a welfare measure when the Supreme Court had held in several cases that pension, an instrument of social security, was a right and not a bounty.
The position that pension is a reward for past service and needs to be updated so that retirees can lead a life of dignity has been underscored in these verdicts.
He flayed IBA for coming up with ‘flimsy objections’ to the demand of retirees for pension revision and accused the IBA of having adopted a divide-and-rule policy.
