In a circular on June 10, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) announced the DA revision for bank employees. The circular said, “Dearness allowance payable to workmen and officers for May, June and July 2024 will be 15.97 percent of the salary.”
DA hike for PSU bank employees: On the very next day of Narendra Modi’s BJP-led NDA government taking charge, public sector bank employees got good news. The dearness allowance (DA) for bank employees has been revised at 15.97% for three months – May to July 2024.
In a circular on June 10, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) announced the DA revision for bank employees.
The circular said, “Dearness allowance payable to workmen and officers for May, June and July 2024 will be 15.97 percent of the salary.”
“In terms of clause 13 of the 12th Bipartite Settlement dated 08.03.2024 and clause 2 (i) of the Joint Note dated 08.03.2024, the rate of Dearness Allowance payable to Workmen and Officer employees for the months of May, June & July 2024 shall be 15.97% of ‘pay’ (0.01 % change in DA on ‘pay’ for change in every second decimal place of CPI 2016 over 123.03 points),” the IBA said in a joint note.
DA hike calculation
The All India Consumer Price Index (Base 2016 = 100) for Industrial Workers for the quarter ending March 2024 is as follows:
January 2024 – 138.9
February 2024 – 139.2
March 2024 – 138.9
The average CPI of the above is 139. Accordingly, the number of points in excess of 123.03 is 15.97 (139-123.03). The previous average quarterly CPI was 138.76. Hence, there is an increase of 0.24 points for May, June and July 2024. The joint note also announced that a new pay scale will be introduced for the employees of public sector banks after the merger of DA and additional load corresponding to 8088 points.
According to the joint note, “With the applicable weightage of 3.22%, the effective weightage on basic pay after the merger of dearness allowance at 30.38% is 4.20%.”
Pay hike for PSU bank employees
Public sector bank (PSU) employees were given a 17% pay hike in March 2024. According to the 9th joint note on pay revision of officers, the total amount of pay revision hike (pay slip component) stood at over Rs 8,284 crore, which is 17% of the cost of pay slip component of establishment expenditure of public sector banks.
The joint note said, “Officers who have passed CAIIB (CAIIB Part-II) will be eligible for two pay hikes from 01.11.2022.” It further said, “The new scale of pay ranges from Rs 48480 to Rs 173860 covering all scales from Scale I to VII effective from 01.11.2022.”
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Update on 5-day working
The 5-day work week for bank employees is a long-standing demand from bank staff unions. As per the joint note in March 2024, the unions demand that all Saturdays and Sundays as off days for workers. But, a government notification is still awaited on this. Till the time a clarity emerges from the government side, there won’t be any changes in the current working schedule for employees. The revised working hours will be implemented only after a notification by the government. However, the IBA and bank unions have agreed to the proposal of 5-day working for bank employees.
