Bank strike hits transactions

Tribune News Service 

Mumbai/Chandigarh, Aug 22

A one-day strike by employees of nationalised banks who were opposing the government’s move to consolidate the financial institutions paralysed banking operations across the country. According to the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the strike was total with all employees of public sector banks participating in the strike. The association said many banks did not open for the day and operations such as deposits and withdrawal of funds, cheque clearance, NEFT and RTGS operations were affected by the strike. The UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions, including the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and the National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW). 

Apart from opposing the government’s moves to merge several nationalised banks in order to reduce the number of banks in the country, the unions also opposed writing off of non-performing assets (NPA) of corporate loans. The unions are demanding that the government should initiate criminal proceedings against corporate houses which have defaulted on bank loans instead of writing off part of the loans granted to them. 

According to the UFBU, 10 lakh bank employees from 21 public sector banks participated in the strike. In addition, 18 old generation banks, eight foreign banks and 56 regional rural banks in Mumbai and Maharashtra participated in the strike, All Indian Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) leader Vishwas Utagi said. 

Meanwhile, over 2,000 employees/officers participated in today’s rally held at the Bank Square, Sector 17, Chandigarh. Sanjeev Bandlish, convener, United Forum of Bank Unions, and general secretary, National Confederation of Bank Employees, criticised the attitude of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the government for their lacklustre attitude towards the genuine demands of the bank employees.