On the 31st of January and the 1st of February, several banks across India would be closed as bank employee unions decided to go on a two day strike.
The unions decided to go on a strike at a time when the Central Government is going to begin the Budget Session of the Parliament. The 2020 Budget Session is scheduled to begin on the 31st of January and continue till the 11th of February. The Budget for the year 2020-2021 would be announced on the 1st of February.
Thousands of employees across India decided to go on strike after the Government failed to fulfill their demands. The employees of the banks who have been demanding a hike in salary since November 2017, would also join the protest.
Officials of the Labour Department, the Finance Ministry and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) tried to convince the union leaders not to go on a strike. However, despite several attempts by them, as the leaders and representatives of the United Forum of Bank Unions are not ready to back off until their issues are resolved.
Some of the major demands put forward by the unions are a 20 % pay hike on pay slip components with adequate loading, a 5 day work week, merging special allowance with basic pay and scrapping of new pension scheme.
An official of the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) said the IBA asked the unions to postpone the strike and asked for further talks regarding demands, which the unions rejected.
The reason the unions did so was no commitment was given by the bank management regarding the employees’ pending issues and demands.
C.H. Venkarachalam, the General Secretary of the AIBEA, who met the IBA officials on the 30th of January, said, “Today’s talks with Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) failed on demand from unions, so strike call stands.” He further said, “We appeal to the banking customers to bear with us for this disruption in services due to the strike but the same has been forced on us by the bank managements and IBA.”
After this strike, bank emlployee unions would conduct another three day strike, starting from the 11th of March. If the Government and bank management do not consider their demands, the unions would go on an indefinite strike from the 1st of April.
State owned banks and Public Sector Banks (PSBs) like State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank would remain closed until the 3rd of February due to the bank employee unions’ strike. Private banks like ICICI and HDFC would function normally.
Stay tuned for further updates.
