PSU bank employees threaten to go on two-day strike from Jan 31

Bank unions have threatened to go on a two-day nationwide strike from January 31 to press for early wage revision.

The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of the nine bank unions including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).

The meeting before Chief Labour Commissioner on Monday remain inconclusive so unions did not take back strike notice, AIBOC president Sunil Kumar said.

The wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017.

In absence of no clear commitment from the Indian Banks' Association on-demand from unions, the strike call stands, said AIBEA general secretary C H Venkatachalam in a statement.

"IBA's rigid approach has left us with no option than to go on strike. We appeal to the banking customers to bear with us for this disruption in services due to the strike but the same has been forced on us by the bank managements and IBA," he said.

Many banks including SBI have informed customers that operations may be impacted to some extent due to the proposed two-day nationwide strike beginning January 31.

If proposed strike materialises, it will coincide with the beginning of the Budget session and presentation of Budget 2020-21.

UFBU in the circular alleged rigid approach of the Indian Banks' Association on demands for a fair wage revision settlement.

"In this background, the meeting of UFBU held at Mumbai on January 13 came to the unanimous and inescapable conclusion that intensified agitational actions have to be resorted to press our demands for reasonable resolution and satisfactory settlement," it said.

Unions are demanding wage revision settlement at a 20 per cent hike on payslip components with adequate loading.

In the past wage settlement, which was for the period November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017, the employees got a 15 per cent hike.

Earlier this month, 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.

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