"The umbrella organisation of the bank unions which met in Hyderabad on August 2 rejected the IBA proposal. It will meet again this week to chalk out the next course of action," All India Bank Officers' Confederation (Aiboc) president Shanta Raju said.

Speaking to The Financial Express after the bank unions' meet, Raju said: "IBA had earlier suggested that the employees' unions discuss certain aspects of the proposed wage structure, specially the inclusion of retirement benefits into the `load-factor', with the individual banks. All the nine bank unions have rejected the IBA suggestion and reiterated a firm committment to a uniform settlement covering the employees of all banks."

Inboc leader KK Nair said the unions will meet next week in Mumbai to chalk out thefuture course of action. According to union sources, a section of the trade unions is keen on launching an industry strike but consensus has been eluding the forum on this issue.

Incidentally, IBA had earlier rejected the unions' proposal of appointing an arbitrator to thrash out the differences between the bankers' body and the union.

Clarifying IBA's stand, IBA MN Dandekar said that IBA's member banks are not in a position to offer further concessions and may pull out en masse from the negotiations in case IBA digresses from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between IBA and the trade unions, on March 11.

"To avoid this, IBA had suggested that the various bank unions restructure the components of the `load factor' with the individual banks. However, both sides were asked to contain all costs within the 12.25 per cent wage hike agreed earlier," Dandekar said. He, however, added that IBA is yet to recieve the formal communication from the UFBU on the outcome of latest the unions'meet.

Banking sources said that the main grudge of various employees' unions revolves around IBA's attempt to `stonewall' the entire process of settlement by refusing to negotiate the issue of distribution of load and charging 26.5 per cent basic pay for the pension scheme which is in lieu of the PF, as against the 10 per cent PF employees were contributing earlier.

However, IBA maintains that both sides agreed at a 12.25 per cent hike inclusive of cost of superannuation benefits and all aspects of wages/allowances and additional costs by way of higher gratuity, PF contribution and pension.

Meanwhile, IBA has decided to stick to the terms agreed in the MoU signed by the banks' association and the trade unions on March 11 which envisages a wage hike of 12.25 per cent for the bank employees, Dandekar said. "With their bottomlines under tremendous pressure on account of low credit offtake, lacklustre economy and increasing competition, banks are not in a position to offer any further increase in thealready huge wage bill of around Rs 1,460 crore per annum." he added.