10 lakh PSU bank employees to go on strike tomorrow; here's what they are demanding

Nearly 10 lakh public sector bank employees are likely to go on nation-wide strike tomorrow. 

Employee unions under United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) on threatened to go on strike on Tuesday against the government's proposed consolidation reforms.

UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions, including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).

The unions claimed that as the conciliation meeting before the Chief Labour Commissioner failed, unions are left with no other option but to go on strike.

As many as 21 public sector banks control 75% of the total business.

Though, most of the PSU banks have informed their customers about the strike and impact on services, operations at private banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, are likely to remain normal except there can be a delay in cheque clearance.

The unions under the UFBU announced the strike after talks with the government over a proposed consolidation move across the sector were inconclusive, among other demands.

What are the demands?

According to a PTI report, unions have four demands:

1. No write-off policy for non-performing assets (NPAs) of corporate loans
2. Declaring wilful default of loans as criminal offence
3. Implementation of the recommendations of parliamentary committee on recovery of NPAs
4. Government should abolish the Banks Board Bureau and ensure stringent measures to recover bad loans.

Apart from these three demands, the unions said that banks should not pass on the burden of corporate bad loans on bank customers by raising the charges.