A four day strike from February 25 and an indefinite strike beginning March 16 figure in the agitation plan of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) in support of an early, higher wage revision.
“We are firm on going on the strike later this month and if need be the indefinite strike too,” declared VVSR Sarma, UFBU Convenor (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).
Mr.Sarma, briefing presspersons here on Monday, said that he did not expect a breakthrough to emerge from the meeting convened on Monday by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) in Mumbai.
On the participation of bank staff in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, he said as many as 80,000 employees and 5,000 branches of public sector and old generation private sector banks will take part in the agitation. The daily business of the branches across both the States is around Rs.20,000 lakh crore, he said.
Employees of the Regional Rural Banks (RRB), whose numbers is around 10,000 in booth the States, will also be joining the strike, he added.
Wage revision, he said, is due from 1 November 2012. In view of the stalemate over wage increase prevails, the UFBU members have gone on strike for five days. Apart from an early revision, the UFBU has been demanding 19.5 per cent increase in wages, while IBA is ready to offer only 13 per cent.
