Employees and officers of various public sector banks across India are on a two-day strike starting Wednesday (May 30) to protest a nominal 2 per cent wage hike offered by the Indian Banks' Association (IBA).

The strike is expected to hit bank customers hard as it may disrupt month-end salary credit operation. Further, the strike could trigger a country-wide cash crunch as ATMs of most banks would not be replenished in the next two-days. Several ATMs might even remain closed during the strike as security guards employed in these ATMs are also likely to participate in the protest.

Owing to the strike, operations such as clearing of cheques, money transfer, cash remittances, and deposit and withdrawals at branches will not be possible in the next two days.

The United Forum of Banking Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, has demanded early wage review settlement, sufficient increase in salary and improvement in other service conditions and wage revision settlement for all officers up to scale VII.

In the last wage revision in 2012, which was for the period between November 1, 2012, and October 31, 2017, bank employees got a 15 per cent wage hike and AIBOC Joint General Secretary Ravinder Gupta said the unions were expecting a better salary increase this time.

According to reports, some banks, mostly private sector banks, will not be impacted by the strike.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, YES Bank and IndusInd Bank are some of the banks that will continue regular operations.

Source: Business Standard

BDST: 1304 HRS, MAY 30, 2018
SI