All banking transactions and clearing house operations came to a halt in the State on Tuesday as thousands of bank employees struck work in protest against bank mergers and demanding capital infusion into public sector banks.
The striking workers held a protest demonstration before the office of the Central Bank of India here. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) said banking reforms were anti-people and that the government should take steps to recover the large amount of money due to it from debtors.
A forum statement said public sector banks were instrumental in safeguarding Indian economy during the times of the global economic recession and that merging the public sector banks threatened the economic security of the country.
The move to merge Kerala’s premier State Bank of Travancore (SBT) and other associate banks with SBI, to close down branches and fire contract employees were “anti-people,” the statement said.
4,5000 participate
Staff Reporter writes from Thiruvananthapuram: According to C.D. Josson, State convener of the UFBU, around 45,000 workers from nearly 7,000 branches of public sector, private, foreign, cooperative, and regional rural banks participated in the strike. The various demands that was raised by the agitators included adequate compensation for officers and employees for extra hours they put in following the demonetisation, early initiation of the next wage revision, adequate recruitment in all cadres, stringent measures to recover bad loans, criminal action against wilful defaulters, steps to ensure accountability of top executives, increase in gratuity limits, and full tax exemption for leave encashment, he said.
The protesters decried the various ‘anti-labour and anti-people reforms of the Central government, including the decision to merge associate banks.
