Bank Strike Paralyses Banking Operation

Public sector bank staff begin two-day strike; operations hit-Hindu Business Line 10.02.2014

Cheque clearances, cash withdrawals, and deposits in public sector bank branches across the country were hit as employees started a two-day strike on Monday to press for a revision in wages.

However, private sector banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were functioning normally.

Employees were compelled to take this route as the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) did not come up with an improved wage offer, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) convener M.V. Murali said. The IBA represents bank managements.

Banks, including the State Bank of India, the country’s largest, had informed customers in advance about the likely inconvenience they would face during the strike.

The unions had rejected the IBA’s offer of a 10 per cent wage hike during a conciliation meeting held on February 6 with the Chief Labour Commissioner.

The offer made by bank managements was not in line with rising inflation, General Secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers Ashwini Rana said.

The staff of public sector banks had gone on a nationwide strike for a day on December 18 after discussions with the IBA on wages on December 14 failed. The wage revision of public sector bank employees has been due since November 2012.

UFBU is an umbrella organisation of nine bank employee and officer unions.

There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a combined employee strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/public-sector-bank-staff-begin-twoday-strike-operations-hit/article5672899.ece

Indefinite strike from February if demands not met, say bank unions

KOCHI, DEC. 27:  

Bank employees’ unions have threatened to go on indefinite strike from February if the Indian Banks Association does not improve upon its 5-per cent wage revision offer it had proposed in talks with the United Forum of Bank Unions, a collective of nine major bank-employee unions.

The Forum, which has decided to go on a 48-hour strike from January 20 to press theAssociation for a five-year wage settlement, is insisting that the latter come up with a renewed offer to avoid potential disruption to the economy.

“We are open for negotiations in the interest of all,” C.H. Venkatachalam, General-Secretary of the All India Bank Employees’ Association, a member of the UFBU, told Business Line. “We are quite aware that a strike will hurt the national economy and cause inconvenience to the customers,” he said.

One of the stated objectives of the IBA is ‘to maintain continuous communications with the representatives of bank employees, to conduct talks, discussions and negotiations with them and to arrive at settlements.’

The unions had gone on a one-day strike on December 18 to force the IBA — which represents managements of all banks in the public and private sector, foreign banks and urban cooperative banks —to come up with a five-year wage settlement with a substantial increase in salaries. Even after the December 18 strike, the IBA had not come up with a renewed offer, he said.

Venkatachalam said though the wage revision was more than a year overdue, the IBA had not bothered to come up with another five-year settlement. After the January 20 strike call was given, it had made an offer of five per cent increase in the monthly salary. But, this was too inadequate to start negotiating, he said.

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