Bank employees from across the country on Friday participated in the two-day nationwide bank strike to press for wage revision and other demands.
Several states including West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu are witnessing the protests, hitting services like cash deposits, withdrawals and cheque clearances.
All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) claimed that around 31 lakh cheques amounting to ~23,000 crore remained uncleared across the country on the first day.
Close to 10 lakh bank employees and officers of various public sector banks, some old generation private banks and a few foreign banks are on a two-day strike, starting Friday, after the negotiation on wage revision under 11th bipartite settlement failed, unions said. However, private sector lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were operational. Bank branches will continue to remain closed on Saturday, adding to woes of the public on the salary day.
The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).
In Patna, protesters were seen carrying placards that read, ‘At the call of UFBU, All India Bank Strike’ and a banner that said, ‘Today the bank is on strike’.
“The contribution of a bank employee is never considered in the country’s economic growth. The income is not efficient enough. We had demanded an increment of 20 per cent in the salary but there has been only a 12 per cent increase in the salary,” a protester was quoted as saying in Patna by news agency ANI.
“All the nationalised banks even the private banks are supporting us. The impact can be seen here as the ATMs are also shut. North Bengal has been facing a huge impact,” a protestor Sanjay Das, general secretary, All India Bank Officers Confederation, said in West Bengal.