Bank employees will hold mass demonstrations, rallies, and processions throughout the country on Friday, despite a call given by Indian Banks Association (IBA) on the same day in Mumbai to finalise wage revision issue.
The meeting has been fixed by IBA following an advice from the Chief Labour Commissioner asking the former to call the unions for negotiations immediately and conduct the meetings fortnightly on regular basis to finalise wage revision at the earliest. The directive from the Chief Labour Commissioner came after the conciliation meeting between both the parties failed to yield a positive result on Monday.
The representative of United Forum of Banks Unions said that they would attend the meeting with an open mind. All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) general secretary C.H. Venkatachalam said further decision on the strike action depends on the outcome of the meeting with IBA on Friday.
“We have virtually rejected IBA’s offer of five per cent increase in our salary as it is inadequate in the present circumstances. We might revisit our decision to strike, only if there is an improvement in the offer. We have not fixed any quantum or percentage as we are yet to work out the cost factor. As of now, the bank strike is on,” he said.
The employees unions have called for a nation wide strike on January 20 and 21 urging the management for a substantial increase in benefits for the bank staff. As a prelude to it, they conducted mass rally and processions in different parts of the country on January 10.
