Strike call by union this month to protest against merger of PSU banks

Days after bank unions called off a three-day bank strike from March 11, two unions called for another bank strike on March 27 to oppose the mega merger of PSU banks. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced yesterday that the Union Cabinet has approved the plan to merge 10 PSU banks into four larger banks. The merger comes into effect from April 1 this year.

The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) have given a joint call for an all-India bank strike on March 27. Their demands include stopping the proposed merger of 10 PSU banks, stopping the privatisation of IDBI Bank and rollback of banking reforms, recovery of bad loans and increase of interest rate on deposits.

C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA, said, the unions have planned series of protests this month peaking with the strike on March 27. The Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) has also announced a fortnight-long agitation programme to protest against the merger."Banks themselves face problems due to huge pile of bad loans. While the public sector banks made a total gross profit of Rs.150,000 crore for the year ended March 31, 2019, because of total provisions towards bad loans, etc. amounting to Rs.216,000 crore, the banks ended in a net loss of Rs.66,000 crore," Venkatachalam said.

Sitharaman, on the other hand, said the merger plan would enhance customer convenience, better branch service, higher credit flow, and lesser time in loan sanctions. Greater scale and synergy through consolidation would lead to cost benefits which should enable the PSBs enhance their competitiveness and positively impact the Indian banking system, a Finance Ministry statement said.

As per the amalgamation plan, United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce would be merged with Punjab National Bank, making the proposed entity the second largest public sector bank. It was decided to merge Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank, while Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank. Similarly, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank are to be consolidated with Union Bank of India.

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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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