Normal operations in public sector banks, including cheque clearances and fund transfers, were today hampered for the second day because of the strike called by unions to protest against reforms in the sector and outsourcing of non-core services to private sector.
“The strike is total success all over the country. Banking services have been affected,” All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said.
Normal banking operations, including cash transactions, cheque clearances, foreign exchange dealings were affected, he added.
Customers were depending more on ATMs as the bank managements had made advanced arrangement for loading the machines with cash.
AIBEA claimed that around 10 lakh employees and officers all over the country are participating in the strike.
Employees of 24 public sector banks (PSBs) and 12 private banks participated in the 2-day strike on Wednesday, which led to hampering of banking operations.
Unions are protesting against reform measures such as the Banking Sector Laws Amendment Bill which seeks to remove restrictions on voting rights of foreign shareholders and increase voting rights of private investors in the PSBs.
Bank unions have been demanding pension revision, housing loan revision, 5-day working week and human resource related issues, among others.
Banks are not charitable institutions and necessarily they have to make profits. Unions place ransom demands on the government by virtue of their brutal membership. The union leaders never come to work and their henchmen also follow suit. So much of manpower and money are wasted. The bank managers find it difficult to extract work from the unionized employees. Even higher officials have become toothless tigers. Government should merge the big banks so that there will not be unhealthy competition among various nationalized banks. More representation of shareholders will pave way for better management of these banks. Too many bank branches in one street have to be shut down which will bring more profit to the banking sector as a whole.
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