Retired bank employees came together at Jantar Mantar to demand a better pension structure.

“We made several representations to the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and ministry of finance but to no avail. The indifference displayed by them is shockingly unjustified,” said KV Acharya, president of All India Bank Pensioners & Retirees Confederation (AIBPARC), an association of retired bank employees. 

The association alleged that the pensions for retired staffs are not hiked like the salaries of the serving staffs. “A General Manager who retired 10 to 15 years ago, is drawing much lesser pension that any of his junior-most subordinate who retired in subsequent years,” Acharya alleged.

The pension of retired employee from the central government service automatically gets revised while this doesn’t happen in Banks, he added. 

The retired employees also raised the question of paltry basic pay as family pension (after the death of employee pension provided to living spouse). “For the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and central government employees, the family pension has been upwardly revised to 30 percent of basic pay.

For the retired bank employees, it is still 15 percent of basic pay as family pension,” Acharya said. The AIBPARC demanded that the government should immediately take steps to ensure increased family pension.
 

The association further demanded that the State Bank of India (SBI) and its associates should get 50 percent of last 10 months basic pay as amount of pension. “The government should take steps to introduce it,” Acharya said.

The association alleged that there is no dearth of money as the net profit of combined banks in 2012 is 48,000 crore (IBA figures). “Surprisingly, the pension reforms have not taken place for the retired employees of banks,” said SR Sengupta, who is general secretary of AIBPARC.

The former bankers also demanded medical and hospitalisation facilities for its retired employees. “There is no uniform and improved medical allowance/ hospitalisation schemes for its retired staffs,” said Sengupta.

This is the first time, the retired employees forum organised demonstration in the capital.