Around one million bankers are going on strike on Tuesday which will affect financial transactions throughout the country.

The country’s largest bank, the State Bank of India (SBI) has released a statement saying that All India State Bank of India Staff Federation and All India State Bank Officers’ Federation which is part of the UFBU will take part in the strike and also added that their bank would be affected by the strike.

The call for a strike has been initiated by the UFBU and it’s protesting against new regulations and reforms in the banking sector. The UFBU forms a part of nine unions which include All India Banking Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA).

Banks have relayed the information to their customers that their branches and offices will be affected. Private banks such as HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank will continue services as normal but cheque clearances are expected to be delayed.

The main reason for the strike called by the UFBU is to challenge the government’s latest consolidation move at the midst of other demands.

D T Franco, AIBOC General Secretary said that a meeting in front of the Chief Labour Commissioner was not fruitful and that the unions couldn’t see another way out and went on strike as they were not given any guarantee from the government or from the management of banks.

C H Venkatachalam, AIBEA General Secretary said that some of the other demands presented forward are, no write-off policy for non-performing assets (NPAs) of corporate loans, execution of recommendations of Parliamentary Committee on the recovery of NPAs and the case of a person willfully defaulting loans should be treated as a criminal offence. He added that bank customers should not be passed on the burden of corporate NPAs by hiking rates.

He also said that the Banks Board Bureau should be eliminated and stringent action should be taken to recover bad loans and a close eye should be kept on top executives.

Another request put forward by the UFBU was that the government should give the banks cost reimbursement for demonetization. 75 percent of total business and transactions are controlled by 21 public sector banks.

Share This Post