Finance ministry to facilitate talks in SBI strike

New Delhi, Apr 9: Following the failure to break the deadlock in the SBI strike last night, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said his ministry will faciliate talks between the bank management and unions today.

''Since the talks stalled last night, the government has called both the management and unions to Delhi for talks and the senior officials of the Finance Ministry will facilitate the talks,'' Mr Chidambaram said at a press conference here.

The government had rejected the agitating employees pension demand yesterday and the decision was conveyed to the unions by the SBI mangement.

Highligting the basic issues involved in the negotiations, the Mr Chidambaram said: ''The SBI employees receive three retirement benefits--gratuity, Provident Fund and Pension compared to two benefits of other nationalised banks--gratuity and Provident Fund or Pension.'' He further added that any revision of the pension formula for SBI should not give rise to competitive demands from employees of other nationalised banks.

Exuding confidence of an amicable solution, Mr Chidambhram said,'' The governemnt will give its most sympathetic considerations to the propsals that will emerge from the talks.'' On alternative arragements made in view of the continuous strike for last six days, the finance minister said the state governments and the RBI have made parallel arrangements to cushion the impact of the strike.

UNI

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