IDBI unions should delete contentious clause: Chidambaram

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram requested the Left MPs to advise the workers and the Unions of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) to delete the clause which is acting as a hindrance in the current negotiations of their wage accord.

He was replying to a calling attention motion raised by the CPI(M) leader Basudeb Achariya that the Government has imposed a certain clause in the wage agreement of the IDBI workers while it had earlier assured the House that workers interests will be protected even after a change of management.

Mr Chidambaram said IDBI was carved out of RBI under IDBI Act, 1964 and came into existance on June 20, 1964. IDBI was transformed into IDBI ltd, a bank vide IDBI repeal Act, 2003 effective from October one, 2004. Further, IDBI bank was merged into IDBI Ltd under the scheme of merger with effect from April 2, 2005. IDBI Ltd has now been constituted under the companies Act, 1956 and a banking company within the meaning of section 5(c) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on business as a commercial bank. It has been classified as "other Public Sector Bank", he said.

He said the management of IDBI had signed a memorandum of settlement with the unions/associations of IDBI on March 17, 2006 for the period from November one, 2002 to October 31, 2007, which inter-alia, says any modification to the provisions of the memorandum of settlement dated October 5, 2005 between the All India Reserve Bank Employees' Association and the managment of Reserve Bank of India, shall mutatis mutandis apply to this settlement and, if so required, the parties hereto shall enter into an amendatory agreement to give effect to such modification.

The settlement will become effective only after the bank receives government approval.

Mr Chidambaram wondered how it was possible that any change in the Reserve Bank Workers Wage Accord would automatically be passed on to them . He said it would not be possible as the staff would become workers of a nationalised banks.

He said his Ministry has already taken the legal view from the Attorney General in this regard.

He requested the Members to prevail upon the workers and the unions for the deletion of that particular clause. In fact, the offiers and a section of the workers of IDBI had already accepted the new wage agreement and received their salaries.

Earlier raising the issue, Mr Achariya said the Government should respect its own commitments made to the workers.

Prabodh Panda (CPI), Sunil Khan (CPIM), Devendra Prasad Yadav (RJD), Shailendra Kumar (SP), Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) Harin Patak (BJP) and Anant Geeta (SS) participated in the discussion.

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