Two-day strike will hit bank transactions

The two-day strike by public sector banks from tomorrow is set to impact financial transaction and affect business operations in the region. The strike is part of the nationwide protest against various issues including mergers and acquisition, privatisation etc., and will negatively affect economic activity.

While Tuesday’s strike will be by the “award staff’’, i.e. employees below the officers’ cadre -who handle cash and carryout the routine duties of the associate banks of the State Bank of India, they will be joined by their counterparts from all the public sector banks across the country. However, the officers’ union is not participating in the strike and will continue with their routine administrative works. But, there will be no public transactions.

A senior official of the State Bank of Mysore told The Hindu that the issue pertaining to merger with the parent bank – SBI – is a closed chapter as the process has already been set in motion. “It is only a matter of few months and this process can neither be rescinded or halted at this juncture,” he said.

R. Raghavendra, Workman Director who also represents the workers on the SBM Board, said the strike was justified as they were merging the associate banks though some of them, like SBM, had better performance on various parameters compared to the SBI. “It is also proposed to go on a strike on July 29 with all employees of all the banks participating in it,’’ he added.

The government wants to erase a 103-year-old institution which is making profits by a simple approval in its pursuit of having a larger entity and this will be followed by merger of a few public sector banks as well, said Mr. Raghavendra.

Customers unhappy

But the customers are not amused and have demanded that banking services be brought under the purview of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to curb frequent strikes by employees. Suresh Kumar Jain, General Secretary, Mysuru Industries Association, said funds tend to get blocked, cheques are not cleared and this adds to interest out-go for the industries. “We cannot repay the short-term loan for which interests are levied on the borrowers for no fault of us,” he said and called for interest waiver for commercial borrowers on the days the banks are on strike.