The IBA proposed that banks be classified into three, namely, those with operating and net profits, with operating profits but no net profit and those with neither operating nor net profits and based on the wage bill of March 31, 1998 it offered an overall load of nine per cent, eight per cent and seven per cent, respectively.

The unions, however, rejected the proposal while pointing out that the basic structure of wages would have to remain standardised as before with discretion to profitable banks to pay higher bonus, better fringe benefits and staff welfare measures.The unions also pointed out that as per IBA's own calculations, overall increase in wage bill in the sixth bipartite settlement was around 20%.