Bank unions defer strike call

Hyderabad: Employee unions of public sector banks (PSBs) have called off their pan-India 2-day strike call on September 26-27. Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar has assured the bank unions to resolve all the problems of bank employees. We have not withdrawn the strike call, but deferred it for the time being, said a joint statement from the four unions.

“The Finance Secretary said the Centre would set up a committee to address all the concerns arising out of the mega-merger of PSBs. So, we have postponed our strike call. We proposed to observe the strike call on September 26-27 across the country. All the banking activities will be normal,” added the statement.

All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) and National Organisation Bank Officers (NOBO) had issued the joint statement.

Fourth Saturday on September 28 is a holiday for banks. September 29 is a Sunday. Banks would normally work on September 30 and October 1 as usual. October 2 is a holiday for the banks on account of Gandhi Jayanthi.

Wage revision, five-day week, reduction in cash transaction hours, retirement benefits, scrapping selling of third party products and other issues are among the demands of the unions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government on August 30 announced a mega-merger of 10 PSBs into four entities. This would bring down the number of PSBs from 19 to 12. Five associate banks of State Bank of India (SBI) merged with the parent bank in 2017 April.

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