Banking services came to a standstill across Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday as employees of both public sector and private banks struck work to press for their demands mainly revision of their wages.
The strike call was given by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) which strongly objected to the alleged denial of wage hike on the pretext of decline in profitability.
UFBI district convener V. Parthasarathy said that it was unfair to deprive employees of the long-pending hike, for which bank managements cited one excuse or the other. All India Bank Employees’ Association zonal general secretary U. Venugopal said the banks adopted a soft approach to big individual defaulters and companies.
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As many as 300 branches of various public sector banks comprising 3,000-plus employees were closed due to the strike. SBI Staff Union Visakhapatnam branch assistant general secretary R. Narendra and BEFI working committee member M. Srinivasa Rao told media that the banks could register 4.82 lakh crore of profit in the last few years with expansion of banking activities across the country.
Hundreds of bank employees took part in the strike in response to the call given by UFBI. They raised slogans demanding immediate redressing of their grievances, mainly implementation of wage revision which is pending since November 2012. UFBI convener (Tirupati) L. Chandrasekhar said it was unfortunate that the IBA pegged the increase in wages at 11 per cent instead of the 23 per cent demanded by employees.
Banking transactions came to a standstill with officers and employees of public sector banks and Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank (APGB) going on strike decrying the delay in settlement of their demand for wage revision as per 10th bipartite wage settlement by IBA.
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APGB Officers’ Association general secretary K.V. Siva Reddy and Employees’ Association general secretary A. Suresh were among those who participated.