Bank strike enters day 2: All you need to know

Fist Biz Feb 11,2014 10 mts ago
Banking operations across India were hit on Monday as members of 
an umbrella trade union of 47 banks began a two-day strike,
 opposing the proposed banking sector reforms and demanding 
immediate revision in wages. PTI

New Delhi: Operations in public sector banks were hit as their employees started a two-day strike on Monday to press for a wage revision even as Finance Minister P Chidambaram appealed to them to recognise that all profits cannot be used to pay higher salaries.

Services such as cheque clearances and withdrawing and depositing of money in PSU bank branches were affected. However, ATMs provided some relief to retail customers. Private sector banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank functioned normally because their staff were not on strike.

Reports from various regions said branches of public sector banks were not operational. The government extended the closing date of a follow-on public offering of shares of Engineers India Ltd by two days to February 12 in view of the disrupted banking services.

"All over the country, about 10 crore cheques worth Rs 7,40,000 crore could not be cleared. In Chennai clearing house, about 90 lakh cheques worth about Rs 64,000 crore could not be processed in clearing," C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), told IANS from Chennai.

Government transactions, foreign exchange transactions and money market operations were also affected.

"All our RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlements) involving clearing of payments with banks that are on strike are affected," an executive of a foreign bank based in Delhi and not part of the strike told IANS.

In Mumbai, all branches of public sector banks, private banks, many foreign banks in the city, and the regional rural bank branches were deserted. "The strike is total. Over a million employees in all these banks, barring the cooperative sector banks, are taking part with around 90,000 bank branches to remain shut for two days for our various demands," AIBEA vice-president Vishwas Utagi told IANS

With the strike slated to continue on Tuesday, customers face the prospect of more ATMs running dry without cash replenishment.

Chidambaram said on Monday that it cannot be that all profits are used to declare dividend and to provide enhanced wages and allowances to bank employees.

"I will appeal to employees and officers of banks to recognise that banks profits, banks earnings have other claims. While claims of officers, staff and employees must be duly acknowledged, and a fair and just (wage) settlement is arrived at, there are other claimants to banks' profit," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

Banks, including the State Bank of India, the country's largest, had informed customers in advance about the likely inconvenience they would face during the strike. The unions had rejected the IBA's offer of a 10 percent wage hike during a conciliation meeting held on February 6 with the Chief Labour Commissioner.

The offer made by bank managements was not in line with rising inflation, General Secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers Ashwini Rana said. "Since IBA and government did not settle our demands, the strike has been forced on us," All India Bank Employees' Association General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said. "We are sorry that the banking public would have been inconvenienced by this strike due to the non-serious approach of the IBA by not improving their offer on wage increase and discussing our concerns on the banking sector reforms," he said.

The wage revision of public sector bank employees has been due since November 2012. UFBU is an umbrella organisation of nine bank employee and officer unions. There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a combined employee strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.

Agencies