Sunday, November 14, 2010

WHAT SHOULD BE THE DATE OF COMMENCEMENT OF PENSION FOR NEW PENSION OPTEES?

Article received through email from ashok goel <ashokgoel47@gmail.com>
Bank Employees Pension Scheme.

“AN ARBITRARY DATE INVENTED BY THE PARTIES TO THE SETTLEMENT FOR PAYMENT OF PENSION/FAMILY PENSION IN RECENTLY PENNED DOCUMENT ON 27 APRIL, 2010.”

Dear Friends,

Though the Bank employees are fighting against the recently written document signed on 27.4.2010 over the extension of one more option to Pension Scheme, to them, who could not opt when it was offered, due to the presence of an illegal clause in the Pension Regulations, 1995 vides Regulation 22(4) (b).

The Selection of the Pension/ Family Pension payment date as 27.11.2009 is totally illegal, arbitrary and against all the basics of the legal values established, by placing brick by brick, by the humble and honorable courts of the country. It was advised by the courts more than several thousand times that each action of the State and or any of the Authority should be free from arbitrariness and bias.


How the IBA engineered the date 27.11.2009, why it was not settled at the previous stages of the talks, under what compulsions it was created, what is the importance of this date and what stops to the parties concerned to protest it?

There were so many legal dates were waiting to come on surface to substitute this unhistorical date of 27.11.2009. It was like a perverse excavation. Every one had to work hard to know the reasons for its selection. Some of the vital dates can be summarized as follows for the payment of pension;-
(A) 29.10.1993 ---- This is the important date which can be selected for starting the pension. On this historical Day a MEMORANDUM OF SETTLEMENT ON PENSION WAS PENNED FIRST TIME IN THE INDIAN BANKING INDUSRY AFTER THE PROTRACTED NEGOTIATIONS, LOTS OF AGITATIONS.
(B) 1.11.1993 ------ This was another acceptable date because it was enumerated in the settlement Dated 29.10.1993 (as mentioned under Para (A) above). Para 11 of the Settlement clearly mandates that ;-

“Actual Payment of Pension in all cases SHALL commence on 1.11.1993”

Parties to the settlement dated 27.4.2010 deeply understand the grammatical meaning of the wordSHALL specifically in the legal terminology. It was the legal date and could be an acceptable date for the parties.
(C) February, 1998 when the BLACK CLAUSE WAS DECLARED ILLEGAL, which was cleverly inserted in the Pension Regulations, I may please be permitted to again mention the said Para as 22(4) (b). The particular date of February, 1998 was the date when the amendment was become effective. One day courts of the country will ask from the Union of India that how it was happened and continued to happen for the long 22 to 23 years.
(D) Due to insertion of this draconian clause Majority of the Bank Employees could not dare to embrace the pension scheme because this Para says that whole of the pension service will be forfeited if one participates in the strike at any time. Only about 30 percent of the employees could opt. It was the legal mandatory date which could be selected for the payment of pension in all cases and not as arbitrarily selected as 27.11.2009.
(E) 31.03.2008--- this can also be some how answerable date for payment because on this date Actuaries reported the so-called gap in pension funding. Though the gap generated by the Actuaries and its basis of such conclusions are still in BLACK BOX,
(F) 25.02.2008--- this is also the date when MEMORADUM OF UNDERSTANDINGS WERE SETTLED AND SIGNED BY IBA AND UNITED FORUM OF BANK UNIONS. It was lingered on and lingered on and lingered on showing disrespect to the MOUs. This was the MOU which became the Foundation Brick for the Pension settlement. If payment date selected without any basics behind it as 27.11.2009 than there is more basic exists in selecting 25.02.2008 because on this date first MOU was penned.
(G) 27.11.2009 -- on this day an extended Mau to previous Mou dated 25.02.2008 was signed.

The dates enumerated and discussed in Para (A) to (G) above, have still some legal leggings. The RETIREMENTS DATE AND THE DATES OF DEATH CAN ONLY BE THE ONLY CONSTITUTIONAL LEGAL DATES for the selection as date of Payment of Pension in all cases and not any other tailor-made date here in this case which was selected as 27.11.2009.

Every one should try to make the Parties to the settlement to understand. It is a decided case on all the morals and ethics that Pension starts from the actual date of Retirement, Voluntary Retirement and Family Pension Starts from the date of death of the Pensioner.

Kindly send the similar requests to the Ministry of Finance Banking Division and to IBA.

Thanks to all,

Ashok goel

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