Bank employees to strike today, tomorrow

Employees of most public and private banks have planned a two-day strike from Friday [January 31].

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Ravi Gouda, Mohammad Qadeer, Sridhar D., Chandra Mohan, Naveen Kagalkar and Narayan Roogi, leaders of different bank employees’ unions, said that the wage revision settlement due from November 2017 will be the major demand of the strike.

“Wages and service conditions of bank employees and other officers are governed by collective bargaining and bilateral agreements. The same are being revised every five years based on the demands submitted by the unions and arising out of discussions with the Indian Banks’ Association. Accordingly, the last settlement was finalised to cover the term from November 2012 to October 2017. Wage revision is due from 2017,” Mr. Kagalkar said.

Except for the employees of a couple of private banks, all other employees and officials working in both public and private banks will participate in the strike.

“There will be no banking activity for two days,” he said.

The union leaders also warned of the second round of strike on March 11, 12, and 13, and an indefinite strike from April 1, if their demands were not amicably settled.

Their other demands include wage revision settlement at 20% hike on payslip with adequate loading thereof; five-day banking; merger of Special Allowance with basic pay; scraping of the New Pension Scheme; update of pension; improvement in family pension, among others.