All India Regional Rural Bank Officers’ Federation Writes To Secretary – Financial Services For Implementation Of Salary Revision

The All India Regional Rural Bank Officers’ Association has written a letter to Secretary – Financial Services for Implementation of Salary Revision, saying that are entitled also to receive the same revision on a par with that in the Commercial Banks as per the order of the Supreme Court of India. A copy of the letter is given below for the benefit of the viewers of www.indianpsu.com 

Shri Debasish Panda
The Finance Secretary Department of Financial Service Ministry of  Finance Government of India
New Delhi.

Re: Implementation of Salary Revision for Officers of Regional Rural Bank (RRB).

Sir,
Salary Revision of officers of Banking Industry has just been concluded. The officers of Regional Rural Banks are entitled to receive the same revision on a par with that in the Commercial Banks as per the order of the Supreme Court of India. In terms of the 2nd proviso under Section 17(1) of the RRB Act of 1976, it is incumbent on the Central Government to declare and release the enhanced salary and allowances of the staff of the RRBs consequent upon the revision of the wages and pay structure of the officers and employees of the Nationalized Commercial Banks in accordance with recently concluded Bipartite Settlement / Officers’ Salary Revision.

Immediately after the last Salary Revision, your good office had released salary and allowances in two parts, Part-I and Part-II. Part-I comprised salary and allowances and Part II included other benefits.

The RRBs were directed to release salary and allowances under Part-I after formal approval of the concerned Boards of Directors. As regards other benefits included in Part II, the RRBs were directed to seek approval of the Sponsor Banks before finalization and release. However, owing to the dilatory tendencies of the Sponsor Banks, such approval was either unnecessarily delayed or granted after unreasonable curtailments of the benefits. The other benefits were seldom released on a par with the counterparts in Commercial Banks, leading to widespread disgruntlement and discontent.

The Supreme Court has declared on several occasions that the officers and employees of RRBs are entitled to the benefits of Bipartite Settlement and Officers Salary Revision in Commercial Banks on a par, and this includes specifically the question of perquisites and other benefits which must also be released on a par. This golden rule was observed more in the breach than in the observance. We would therefore suggest that, in order to obviate the procrastination of the Sponsored Banks in respect of release of other benefits in RRBs, their role as intermediaries may be done away with and the responsibility of implementation of the other benefits under Part II may directly be entrusted to the managements of the individual RRBs.
We hope that you will kindly arrange to have the whole process of implementation the revision of salary and allowances of RRB officers in line with that in the commercial banks expedite.

Yours faithfully,

(Srijan Kumar Pal)

General Secretary.