Calcutta, March 3 :     The Indian Banks Association has drawn up an industry-wide golden handshake scheme that will cover over 10 lakh employees in 27 nationalised banks. The IBA is the forum that represents bank employers. All employees with 15 years of service will be eligible to opt for the scheme which is now under the active consideration of the Union government. The nominal date for the launch of the scheme is April 1, 1998 (though this could be changed depending on the government?s approval). The maximum number of years of qualifying service that will be taken for calculation of the golden handshake amount has been fixed at 33. Each year of service beyond the minimum level of 15 years will be treated as 10 months up to the maximum of 33 years, which will be calculated from the nearest date of appointment at the time that the employee exercises the option. An employee will be paid 15 days? basic pay excluding dearness allowance for the remaining part of the service (that is, the period exceeding the minimum level of 15 years). The formula for calculating the amount for the years of service in excess of the minimum level of 15 years will be: the number of months multiplied by basic minus DA divided by 2. The employee who has opted for the pension scheme of November 1, 1993 will be entitled to pension from the actual date of his superannuation. Those opting for the golden handshake shall be entitled to encash their privileged leave. They will also be entitled to avail of their forthcoming leave fare concession (LFC) including current LFC if unavailed. This means that the employees will be able to enjoy LFC twice in the year that they leave service under the scheme. The pension of the employees will be calculated on the average of last 10 months? pay at the time of the golden handshake in accordance with the terms of the pension scheme. An employee shall be entitled to commutation of pension on the production of his medical certificate in accordance with the pension rules. Employees will also be entitled to collect gratuity on the eve of the golden handshake. Employees who have completed 25 years of service shall get 25 per cent more than the amount accruing under the formula for calculating the amount due for the period in excess of the minimum period of 15 years. An employee having less than 25 years of service shall be entitled to have 15 per cent more than that calculated under the formula. An employee who has completed 30 years of service shall get 10 per cent over an above the amount calculated under the formula. The scheme also permits an employee to avail of his provident fund. Under the terms of the scheme, an employee shall get simple interest of 8 per cent per annum on his provident fund balance which will be deducted from the golden handshake amount for the purpose of pension which will be liquidated at the time of grant of pension. The interest will be paid to the employee only at the date of his superannuation. Confirming the details of the scheme, a senior IBA official said the major task before the Indian public sector banks was to improve their financial performance. ?We usually classify public sector banks into three categories. The first category consists of banks which have both positive operating profits and net profit after provisioning; the second comprises banks which have negative net profits after provisioning while the third category lists banks with negative operating profits. The number of banks showing operating profits has been on the increase this year. However, the unions are opposing the golden handshake scheme. Tarakeswar Chakraborty, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees? Association said, ?We will resist any attempt to introduce a VRS. As far as we are concerned, job security is more important than wage revision.?