Bank strike tomorrow; Your ATM transactions, pay withdrawal to take a hit as 1 mn officers to stop work

In case you have an bank account in state-owned lenders, then you might want to finish your financial operations by today itself, as bank unions will be carrying out a 2 day strike tomorrow onwards. The strike will be held till May 31. Many banking operations  will suffered during this strike and even your ATM transactions may take a hit. The strike is being carried through to press for a salary hike. An offer of 2% made by the Indian Banks Association (IBA) for unions was not accepted by them and they threatened to go on strike to press for their demands. Even the largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) had released a notification about the strike warning customers and markets. 

According to Business Standard report, Additional Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) Rajan Verma had held a conciliatory meeting between the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), finance ministry officials and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) in an effort to avert the strike.

All India Bank Employees' Association General Secretary C H Venkatachalam told the daily, “The CLC tried his best to sort out the strike-related issues but there is no positive development. Though the bankers, through the IBA, said they are willing to reconsider the proposed wage hike, there was no concrete proposal. Hence, the strike stands.”

It is expected that about 1 million bank officers are expected to participate in the strike on May 30 and May 31.

In 2012 when the last wage revision happened, it was by 15% and this cost banks approximately Rs 83 billion. Therefore, the 2% hike on offer now brings less burden for banks who are choking with massive stressed assets. 

According to D T Franco, general secretary, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation, the 2% wage hike will cost banks approximately Rs 5 billion, while the proposal given by the unions will cost them around Rs 120 billion.

Bank employees wage revision are due from November 1, 2017.

2% salary hike was rejected by unions like United Forum of Bank Unions.

The AIBOC decided to send a detailed communication to the government immediately followed by a nationwide demonstration on 9th May, 2018.

Many state-owned banks like SBI, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank had cautioned workers about the strike.

SBI in a notification on May 21, said, “we have been advised by the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and UFBU has served a notice of strike, informing their decision to go on nationwide bank strie on May 30 to May 31, 2018."

All India State Bank Officers' Federation and All India State Bank of India Staff Federation are members of UFBU. 

Therefore, it is likely that SBI will also be impacted to some extent by the said strike calls.