Nation-wide strike impacts banking services at PSU banks

Banking operations, including cash withdrawal and cheque clearance, were hit due to two-day nationwide strike by employee unions of public sector banks to press for wage revision.

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) to press for wage revision pending since November 2017.

However, private sector lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank ran operations as usual.

Branches in several parts of the country remained closed and some of the ATMs also went dry, according to reports coming various parts of the country.

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.

The strike coincided with the beginning of the Budget session of Parliament and presentation of Union Budget 2020-21.

The UFBU decided to go on strike after its discussion with Indian Banks Association (IBA) on wage revision failed in the recent round of negotiations held on Thursday.

During discussions, the IBA on Thursday improved their offer to 12.5 per cent, but this was not acceptable, the unions said.

"The bank managements and IBA did not come forward to settle the demands with a reasonable increase in salary looking to inflation and heavy workload on the employees," the UFBU said.

However, the 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.

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.

The IBA also rejected the unions demand for five-day banking saying, "It is known to all that the economy of the country is going through testing times. Banks being the principal players in economic development, cannot afford to provide lesser number of working days for banking activities."

The banking lobby said the country already has one of the highest numbers of public holidays and adding 26 more holidays would create more problems for the public.

"IBA is claiming five-day banking is not possible due to the tough economic situation in the country. Then how RBI, Department of Financial Services (DFS), NCLT, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and other central and state departments are working for five days in a week? Are these institutions not worried about the economic slowdown?" asked a section of agitating bankers.

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UFBU 's call for strike - See the Schedule

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PSU Bank unions decide to join national strike called on Jan 8

Bank unions have decided to join the national general strike which has been called on January 8, 2020. The strike has been called in protest against the central govt's labour policies and banking reforms, said the unions.

Central Trade Unions viz. INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC along with various independent Federations and Unions in different Sectors have given the call for national general strike on January 8, 2020 to protest against labour policies of the government.

The demands include, price control, creation of more jobs for unemployed youth, guaranteed right to job, right to wage, job security, end of outsourcing of permanent jobs, no adverse amendment of labour laws, and no curtailment of trade union rights. The unions have also demanded a minimum wage of Rs 21,000 with no weakening of social security schemes.

Workers from both the organised and unorganised sector are expected to participate in this strike.

In the banking sector, the call has been jointly given by 5 Unions; AIBEA, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF and INBOC. In addition, employees of RBI, co-operative Banks, RRBs, LIC and General Insurance sector are also joining the strike. Workers from various other sectors like defence production, steel, oil, coal, railways, ports, road transport, teachers, and other government employees etc. have decided to join the strike, said C H Venkatachalam, General secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA)

"In the banking sector, we find that the Government’s policy is privatisation and unwarranted merger of nanks despite our vehement protests. On the other hand, the main issue of recovery of corporate bad loans is being ignored and concessions are being given to them while service charges are increased for the common people," he said.

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Strike call on 22nd Oct by AIBEA & BEFI - Circular

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Bank Union differed two-day strike on September 26, 27

The proposed two-day bank strike, called by four bank unions following the recent government announcement on amalgamation of 10 public sector banks into four, has been called off.

The decision was taken after members of the bank association on Monday met the Finance Secretary and were assured of a positive solution on their demands.

Two two-day strike, to be held on September 26 and September 27, and followed by two-day weekend, i.e. Saturday and Sunday, was called by banking unions- All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), Indian National Bank Officers' Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).

The banking unions have threatened to go on a strike following to protest against the merger. In a statement, the AIBOC said that the unions in the banking sector were opposed to the merger of banks. The officials asserted that the organization is protesting for the interest of the general public.

Among other demands, the unions are also seeking the immediate introduction of five-day a week in full and reduction of cash transaction hour and regulated working hours.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on August 30 announced that Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank and United Bank will be merged to become the second-largest PSU Bank in India. Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank will be merged into one entity to be 4th largest PSB, while Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be amalgamated into a single entity to be the 5th largest PSB; and Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank will become one entity to be the 7th largest PSB.

The Finance Minister further said that the Bank of India and Central Bank of India would remain independent. After the amalgamation, only 12 PSBs will be left in India from the 27 earlier.

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4 Bank Unions give notice for strike in September

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150 million Indians to go on strike against Modi’s “anti-labour” policies

Daily life across India might come to a screeching halt as nearly 150 million employees across banks, public transport, factories, and government companies go on a two-day strike from tomorrow (Jan. 08).

The strike has been called by 10 trade unions across the country against what they believe are anti-labour policies of prime minister Narendra Modi’s government. Employees from the power, steel, auto, and financial services sector will participate in this “historic event.”

The strike will also be joined by farmers, who have been protesting against the agrarian crisis in the country for several months now.

“The government has been pursuing anti-economic and anti-labour policies which has forced us to go on this strike,” CH Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Banks Employees’ Association (AIBEA), one of the trade unions that is participating in the protest, told Quartz. “For instance, prices of commodities have been going up and even the essential goods are not available in fair price shops and the government doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.”

Founded in 1946, AIBEA is India’s oldest and largest bank employees’ union with around 500,000 members.

Another reason for the protest is the fact that India is not creating enough jobs. Ahead of the last general elections, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised to create nearly 10 million jobs every year. Despite these tall claims, the employment scenario in the country is so dismal that in the last financial year the total number of employees in India came down, instead of going up.

Another sore point for the trade unions is that a large number of public sector companies are struggling, forcing the government to divest its stake in them or merge them with healthier ones. For instance, in November 2018, the cabinet approved the stake sale of government-owned Dredging Corporation of India to a consortium of four ports.

“The public sector companies have a lion’s share in the economy and therefore steps must be taken to strengthen them instead of privatising them as it may lead to various problems,” Venkatachalam said.

This is the second time in less than a fortnight that bank employees are going on a strike against bank mergers. In September last year, the government had announced the merger of Dena Bank with Vijaya Bank and Bank of Baroda (BOB), which will come into effect from April 01, 2019. Last month, nearly a million bank employees had observed a one-day strike against the merger. However, soon after the last strike, the cabinet approved the merger proving the strike to be futile.

In a filing to the stock exchanges, many banks have already said that the strikes this week may impact their services. “In the event of AIBEA and BEFI proceeding on strike on January 8-9, 2019, the functioning of bank’s branches/offices in some of the zones may be affected,” BOB informed the exchanges on Jan. 05.

This is a situation that has played out in India several times where it has been proven that strikes yield very little results apart from inconveniencing the general public.

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Don't blame Banker, Why PSU bankers on strike? here is the reason

Branches of state-owned banks are shut on Wednesday on account of a nation-wide strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) against the proposed amalgamation of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda. 

1. According to Ashwani Ranan, vice president, National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW), the UFBU served a strike notice to the Indian Bank Association (IBA) and the MDs of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank on merger of the three state-run banks.

2. "Since there was no assurance by the IBA on stopping the merger of these three banks and fresh offer on wage revision, the UFBU decided to go ahead with the strike on December 26," news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) quoted him as saying in a report.

3. The unions claim that the government wants banks to grow in size by such mergers but even if all public sector banks are bundled into one, the merged entity will not find a place among the top 10 globally.

4. The government had in September proposed the merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank -- the first three-way merger in the country's public sector banking space.

5. The unions are also demanding a hike of 25 per cent, increment for all bank employees under scale 1 to 7 (instead of the IBA's offer to only those employees in junior scale of 1 to 3) and rejection of the proposal to introduce variable pay.

6. Though wage revision in state-run banks happens every five years, it may be difficult for them to raise wages substantially as high non-performing assets (NPAs) - or bad loans - and losses have hurt the sector.

7. "Bank employees wage revision is due since November 1, 2017. So far the IBA has offered 8 per cent wage hike which is not acceptable to the United Forum of Bank Unions," said Mr Ranan of NOBW.

8. This is the second bank strike in less than a week. Last Friday (December 21), an officers' union of state-run banks, All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), observed a day-long strike to protest against the merger and also demanded immediate settlement of wage negotiations.

9. Banks were also shut on December 22 and 23 (Saturday and Sunday), and December 25 for Christmas.

10. Besides Sundays, banks at present observe public holidays on the second and fourth Saturdays each month since September 2015.

Especially share to those people who are blaming banker without knowing the proper reason.

Source- NDTV

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