Banking services affected as employees strike

The nationwide strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions, pressing for a 20% wage hike and a charter of other demands

Banking services in the city were affected as employees participated in the nationwide strike on Friday called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), pressing for a 20% wage hike and presenting a charter of demands.

Employees of around 300 branches of public sector banks in the city participated in the strike. Around 500 members affiliated to UFBU, an umbrella organisation of nine trade unions, staged a demonstration and raised slogans in front of the State Bank of India on Dr. Ambedkar Road.

The protesters said the wage revision of employees has been pending since November 2017. “Despite submitting a charter of demands regarding wage revisions, the Indian Bank Association (IBA) has not paid heed to our demands. Multiple discussions were held in the last 20 months and recently IBA had announced that wages will be increased by only 12.25%,” said M. Sundararajan, convenor of the protest.

He also charged that IBA has been writing off non-performing assets (NPA) using profits of public sector banks. “Rather than collecting the bad loans from corporate giants, the IBA has been using profits to write off NPAs,” he alleged.

The employees have also been protesting, demanding five-day banking, merger of special allowance with basic pay, scrapping of the new pension scheme and other welfare measures.

Hence, the unions have called for this nation-wide strike, he added. “We are also planning to hold strike on March 11, 12 and 13. If our demands are not attended, then we will call for an indefinite strike from April 1,” he said.