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Informist, Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to stay the implementation of 2024's Performance-Linked Incentive Scheme for senior executives of public-sector banks. The court issued notices to the government and the Indian Banks Association on a petition by the All India Bank Officers' Confederation challenging the scheme and listed the case for hearing on May 25. The other petitioners in the case are the All India Bank Employees' Association and the National Confederation of Bank Employees. 

 

In 2020, a bipartite settlement and joint note was signed between the petitioners and the Indian Banks Association, through which a Performance-Linked Incentive Scheme was introduced, covering all workers, employees, and officers from Scale I to Scale VII. However, in 2024, the government came up with a new scheme to incentivise only officers from Scale IV to Scale VIII. This section of public-sector bank employees accounts for less than 5% of the total workforce, the petitioners said.

 

Aggrieved by the government's high-handedness and arbitrary action, the petitioners, along with several other unions representing bank employees, issued a notice proposing to go on 48 hours' continuous strike from Mar. 23, 2025, to Mar. 25, 2025. Thereafter, a conciliation officer initiated conciliation proceedings between the parties for amicable resolution of the issues. The officer issued directions advising the government and the Indian Banks Association to not implement the new incentive scheme for any scale until the outcome of the conciliation proceedings.

 

However, in March, the government issued orders to Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, and State Bank of India to implement the new scheme though the conciliation proceedings were still pending. The petitioners apprehended that the government and the Indian Banks Association planned to implement the new scheme despite the directions of the conciliation officer.
 

The petitioners urged that implementation of the scheme be kept in abeyance until the conciliation proceedings ended. Further, they asked that the government and the Indian Banks Association maintain status quo with respect to the services of members of the unions and to not change their service conditions by implementing the new scheme till the end of the conciliation proceedings.

 

The petitioners said the new incentive scheme violates the settlement entered into between them and the Indian Banks Association. The scheme is "arbitrary, discriminatory, and violative of Articles 14, 16, and 21 of the Constitution of India," they said.

 

Further, they said, the government has no power to introduce or change any service conditions mutually agreed between the Indian Banks Association and the unions through a bipartite settlement. The unions are engaged in conciliation proceedings and even if an award is passed in their favour, it would be reduced to a paper decree incapable of execution if their service conditions were changed, the petitioners said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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