Banks go to strike on salary day; will you get your money on time?

Customers of PSU banks may face problems in carrying out their everyday operations that required banks’ direct help as employee unions of state-owned banks have called a two-day pan India strike effective from January 31. The strike has been called by the unions to press their claims for increment in wages. The dates of the strike also coincide with the salary crediting date making things complicated for the majority of salaried individuals. The strike will coincide with the Union Budget scheduled to be tabled by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.

Country’s largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) had notified its customers well in time before the strike took place and assured that the strike would have minimal impact on banking operations. Private banks such as ICICI Banks and HDFC Bank were operational making life easier to a certain extent for common people. Various services such as cash deposit, withdrawal, cheque clearances, instrument issuance, and loan disbursement were affected due to the strike. The two-day strike would eventually make it three days of no banking services for the people and banks will reopen only on February 3 (Monday).

Numerous bank unions such as United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) had given the calls for the strike. The participating unions have claimed 10 lakh employees of different government-owned are involved in the strike.

Banks have not revised the wages for their employees since 2017 leading to a deadlock between employees and management. Employees were given a hike of 15 per cent In the past wage negotiation settlement, which took place for the period November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017. Unions have demanded a 20 per cent hike on payslip components.

However, the Indian Banks’ Association’s statement is different from the claims made by the union representatives. The IBA has said that the unions have gone ahead with all-India bank strike despite the revised offer of up to 19 per cent hike, including performance-linked incentive, made by it during the meeting on Thursday

Earlier this month, a group of bank employees had gone on a day-long strike on January 8 against the alleged “anti-people” policies by the Narendra Modi’s NDA government.

Source: Financial Express