Banking services in the district were largely affected on Friday owing to the nationwide strike called by United Forum of Banks Unions (UFBU), a confederation of nine bank employees’ associations, condemning the move to privatise public sector banks.
In a demonstration on West Veli Street, the employees said that they were not agitating for their wage hike, bonus or promotion but against privatisation of banks, which was against public interest. Instead of privatising the banks, they said that the government should take steps to recover the non-performing assets (NPAs), which mostly included loans taken by big corporate companies.
They accused the government of favouring the corporates by writing off their debts using the profit made by public sector banks.
Claiming that privatisation would only benefit the corporates and would be detrimental to national interest, the employees urged the public to support their protest.
