New DeIhi : As differences between bank employees’ union and management over a 20% pay hike, 5-day work week, etc failed to get resolved, thousands of bank employees sat on a two-day bank strike from today. Large number of bank employees gathered at Jantar Mantar under the banner United Forum of Bank Unions. They also raised slogan against government while making their demands.
General Secretary SBI Staff Association Parveen Chhabra interacting with Ten News, said, “We are financial soldiers of India but not getting what we deserve.
Demands from the Bank unions are: 20 per cent pay hike on payslip components, 5-day work week, scrapping of the new pension scheme, merger of special allowance with basic pay.
The Bank employees have been waiting for a pay hike since November 2017 and are likely to join the protest. Bank strike’s timing corresponds with the Economic Survey and Union Budget FY20-21.
Earlier, both, finance ministry and labour department officials had tried to convince the bank unions to hold their strike. But the talk dint worked and strike was started.
Bank union leaders said about 31 lakh cheques worth ₹23,000 crore could not be cleared due to the strike. Several PSU bank branches and even ATMs could remain shut for three days in many parts of India as the bank strike comes before Sunday. Banks have also warned their customers that its services will be impacted for two days from January 31, 2020, to February 01, 2020.
The timing of this bank strike is symbolic as it coincides with the release of the Economic Survey in the Parliament today and the presentation of the Union Budget tomorrow.
While work at private sector banks like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank would not be affected due to the strike, services at PSU banks were hit. The State Bank of India (SBI) had already warned that its services could be impacted to some extent. Around 10 lakh bank employees were expected to join the two-day protest.
