Banks to be closed for next 2 days? Employees set to go on strike; Watch video

Banks may be closed for the next two days or at least services may be affected as staffers have called for a strike. Pressing for higher wage revision, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has called for a two-day nationwide bank strike on May 30 and 31, as the conciliatory talks convened by the Chief Labour Commissioner on Monday failed. The strike is likely to hit banking operations across the country. 
 
According to reports, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) proposed a two per cent revision in wages for employees of public sector banks, but the unions refused to accept the proposal. The strike call has been given by the UFBU, a representative body of nine bank unions, following the government’s reported casual approach to wage revision for bank employees/officers and IBA’s delay in resolving charter of demands. Earlier the wage negotiation meeting was held on May 5, IBA had proposed to offer two per cent hike in the wage bill cost as on March 31, 2017, maintaining that the negotiations on officers demands would be restricted up to scale III officers only.
 
"It is only because of provisions towards NPA that banks have booked losses, and for this, bank employees are not responsible," United Forum of Bank Unions' convener Devidas Tuljapurkar told reporters in Mumbai. He stated that in the last two-three years, bank employees have worked tirelessly to implement the government initiatives like Jan-Dhan, demonetisation, Mudra and Atal Pension Yojana, among others, and "This has resulted into huge increase in their workloads."
 
In the last wage settlement for the period of November 1, 2012 to October 31, 2017, IBA had given a wage hike of 15 per cent. West Bengal convenor of the UFBU, Siddhartha Khan, told PTI that there are nearly 10,000 branches and 21,000 ATMs with 70,000 employees of public sector banks in the state. The RBI should publish the list of wilful defaulters and conduct forensic audit of stressed assets, he added. 

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 Meanwhile, the Assam unit of All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) has also decided to participate in the 48-hour all-India bank strike under the banner of UFBU. The state unit stated that the wage revision is due since November 1, 2017, but the IBA as well as the central government have failed make any effort to consider the revision.