Banks plan to go on strike on February 28, salaries to get delayed?

Operations at public sector banks may be hit on February 28 as SBI, PNB and BoB have threatened to go on strike.

By: News Desk |
February 27, 2017 12:34 pm

This is for all the employees who were happy as the month February has 28 days and they would receive salaries a bit early. But, here is a bad news. Operations at public sector banks may be hit on February 28 as State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) have threatened to go on strike.

Unions under the aegis of The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have threatened to go on strike to press for various demands, including accountability of top executives in view of mounting bad loans in the banking sector.

However, the functioning of private banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank is expected to be normal except delays in cheque clearances.

UFBU is an umbrella body of 9 unions, but two of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh affiliates — National Organisation of Bank Workers and National Organisation of Bank Officers — are not part of the stir.

All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said, “a meeting was held before the Chief Labour Commissioner on February 21 but it failed to break the logjam as the bank management represented by the Indian Banks Association did not agree to demands.

As the demands raised by the unions yielded no results, therefore, UFBU decided to proceed with the proposed strike on February 28.

Some of the demands include compensation of employees and officers for extra hours of work put in following demonetisation in November and early initiation of process of next wage revision of bank employees.