NE BUSINESS BUREU
NEW DELHI, JAN 31
Services of public sector banks were impacted as employee unions went on a two-day nationwide strike from Friday to press for wage revision. Banking services were paralysed across the nation.
However, private sector lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were operational.
Many banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), had informed customers in advance that operations may be impacted to some extent due to the strike.
Cash deposit, withdrawal, cheque clearances, instrument issuance and loan disbursement were affected. In the clearing grids in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, about 31 lakh cheques worth about Rs 23,000 crore could not be cleared due to the strike. Most of the bank branches remained closed. Cash could not be deposited or withdrawn, C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA said.
With this strike, banks would be closed for three days including Sunday. Banks will open only on Monday, February 3. The strike coincides with the beginning of the Budget session of parliament and presentation of Union Budget 2020-21.
The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).
Unions claimed that about 10 lakh staff and officers of public sector banks and some private sector banks are participating in strike.
Branches of public sector banks were closed in many parts of country, as per initial reports.
Wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017.
In the past wage settlement, which was for the period November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017, employees got a hike of 15 per cent.
During discussions, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on Thursday improved their offer to 13.5 per cent, but this was not acceptable, the unions said.
However, IBA in a statement said despite the revised offer of up to 19 per cent hike, including performance linked incentive, made by it during the meeting on Thursday, the unions decided to go ahead with the all-India bank strike.
A section of bank employees had gone on a day long strike on January 8 in support of 10 major trade unions’ protest call against the government’s “anti-people” policies.
Deduct salary for strike period: Gujarat High Court
Meanwhile, the local media in Gujarat reports that the High Court has issued a direction to deduct salary of employees and officers of the banks for the strike period.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Gujarat High Court issued notice to Reserve Bank of India on a PIL filed by eight trade federations in the state seeking the court’s direction to the central bank to not allow unions to go on strike.
