The banking operations across the nation came to a halt on Tuesday as around 10 lakh bankers staged a strike against the government’s “anti-people banking reforms”, said a bank union leader. The strike was initiated by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) that comprises nine unions. They are pushing for compensation to workers for extra work done due to demonetization along with other demands.
“Around 85,000 branches of commercial banks, 105,000 branches of the co-operative bank and others are on strike,” said C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), as per the reports.
The clearance of 40 lakh cheques totalling around Rs 22,000 crore would be affected, he added.
Staff and officers in all public sector banks, including State Bank of India, all old-generation private banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks are supporting the strike. Significantly, most of the banks, including SBI, PNB and BoB, have already told their consumers that the operation of branches and offices will be affected if the strike happens.
Major Private Lenders including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank are not part of the union and would continue to work in general but cheque clearances would not happen. Apart from that, cash transactions would also be affected and the ATMs may get emptied early during the day.
“Strike is on as there has not been a serious effort from the bank management especially Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to defer it by accepting some of our demands,” All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary Harvinder Singh said as per a report in India Today.
UFBU is an umbrella body of 9 unions. However, two of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh affiliates — National Organisation of Bank Workers and National Organisation of Bank Officers are not part of the move.
