Bank strike next week: Five-day disruption may hit your salary credits

Ahead of next week’s three-day nationwide bank strike, the Chief Labour Commissioner has called a conciliation meeting with bank unions and officials on Tuesday. “Bank unions are continuing with their strike plans. The CLC has called a meeting tomorrow. Let us see then,” said a source close to the development.

Bank unions have called for a three-day nationwide strike from September 28 to 30. Banking services, however, may be affected for five days, as the preceding weekend is also a holiday. If it goes ahead, the strike will coincide with the end of the month, when salaries and several important transactions are processed, as well as the half-yearly closing of the banking sector.

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The finance ministry has also called a meeting of chiefs of public sector banks and regional rural banks on Monday to discuss measures to keep banking and essential customer services running. The meeting is understood to be chaired by the Secretary, Department of Financial Services, and is expected to review banks’ contingency plans to prevent services from coming to a standstill during the five-day period.

The strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions, which claims to represent 90% of the banking workforce and includes seven bank unions. Its key demands include a five-day working week for bank employees, a uniform incentive based on the performance of the bank as a whole, withdrawal of the performance-linked incentive scheme, and updation and improvement of pension benefits.

Bank unions had gone on strike on September 11 as well and have threatened to launch an indefinite strike from October 26 if their demands are not met.