Centre should consider demands of retired bank employees: Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor, MP, speaking at a protest organised by Joint Forum of Bank Retirees, Kerala, in front of the Secretariat on Friday.

The Union government should not continue to ignore the demands, including that for an increase in pension, raised by retired bank employees who had a key role to play in the growth of public sector banks in the country, Shashi Tharoor, MP, has said. He was speaking after inaugurating a protest organised by the Joint Forum of Bank Retirees, Kerala, in front of the Secretariat on Friday.

He said that it is unfortunate that the Indian Banks’ Association has remained unwilling to discuss the issues with the retired bank employees and their organisations. CPI(M) MLA I.B. Satheesh, who delivered the keynote address, said that the retired employees should come forward to convince people about the importance of bank nationalisation and the need for banks to remain in the public sector.

The demands raised by the joint forum includes abandoning of bank privatisation moves and revision of existing pensions. The forum also demanded that banks bear the basic policy premium for health insurance, granting of ex gratia arrived at in the twelfth bilateral agreement to private bank employees, consideration of special allowances while calculating the pension and implementation of the old pension scheme instead of the contributory pension scheme.

The Joint Forum has been formed jointly by the All India Bank Pensioners and Retirees Confederation, SBI Pensioners’ Association Kerala and All Kerala Bank Retirees Forum.