Bank employees on national strike
New Delhi, Dec 26: Banking services are likely to affect nation-wide today because nearly 10 lakh bank employees will be on the day-long strike. This strike has been called by the ‘Union Forum of Bank Unions’ (UFBU).
According to UFBU, the membership of the union is nearly 10 lakh bank employees and officers from 21 public sector banks.
From last five days banks have remained closed due to holidays and one-day strike (Friday,21dec), so due to today’s strike, the inconvenience for commoners will continue.
This strike protests against the proposed merger of three public sector banks and also for demanding pay revision.
This strike protests against government’s plans about the integration of Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank, and Vijaya Bank. Total nine bank unions clarion call for this strike with All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National organization of Bank Workers (NOBW).
“10 Lakh bank employees and officers of the 21 public sector banks, Foreign banks under UFBU and old-generation private banks will join the one-day strike on December 26, against the merger of public sector banks and wage revision of bank employees”, Mr. Ashwani Rana, vice president of NOBW said in an official statement.
The stand of unions on wages is that they are demanding 25% increment for all bank employees under the scale of 1 to 7 instead of IBA’s (Indian Banks’ Association) offer to only for the employees under the junior scale of 1 to 3. Unions are also rejecting the proposal of induction of variable pay.
Mr. Rana said, “Bank employees wage revision is due from November 2017. The IBA’s offer has 8% wage hike which is not acceptable to the United Forum of Bank Unions”. As per the official statement, the Additional Labour Commissioner had called a conciliation meeting on December 20 to wade off the strike.
Rana Further said, “The United Forum of Bank Unions served a strike notice to the Indian Bank Association and the MDs of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank on the merger of these banks. 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.”
The bank unions appealed that, the government wants the bank 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. In the September, the government approved the notion of amalgamation of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, and Dena Bank-the first three banks to merge in public banking space.
Meanwhile, the December 21 strike was called by the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), the target was highlighting the association’s demand for a full and unconditional mandate for 11th Bipartite wage revision talks which is based on May 2017 charter of demands.