The Hindu Business Line : Bank employees to strike work on Jan 25

New Delhi, Jan. 3 About a million employees and officers from various banks in the country will go on day-long strike on January 25 to protest against the planned merger of associate banks of State Bank of India with their parent bank and press for resolution of their unmet demands including early settlement of wage revision, and extension of one more option to join pension scheme.

This decision emerged at a meeting of the United Forum of Banking Unions (UFBU) here in the Capital today, according to the UFBU Convenor, Mr C.H.Venkatachalam.

The strike call for January 25 coincides with the meeting of the boards of six associate banks on the same date to consider in-principle nod for their merger with SBI, which is the country’s largest commercial bank.

“In the name of global competitiveness, the Government wants to consolidate and merge public sector banks. They are looking for consolidation from the point of view of higher profits. Consolidation is not an answer to meet the challenges of financial inclusion and economic development. For a country like India, public sector banking has to be further spread and expanded,” Mr Venkatachalam said at a press conference.

“We are opposed to the concept of merger in public sector banks,” Mr Alok Khare, President of the All-India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), told Business Line.

Besides the strike call for January 25, the UFBU has also decided to go for two days of strike on February 25 and 26. “If our demands are not met by then, we will go on an indefinite strike from last week of March 2008,” Mr Venkatachalam said.

Apart from their demand that there should be no merger in PSBs, the unions have also sought adequate recruitments in banks. “Thousand of vacancies remain unfilled in the banks adding to the workload on existing employees and officers,” a representative of a union said.

UFBU is also irked that bank employees are not getting one more option to join the pension scheme. In March 2007, the IBA agreed to discuss the unions’ demand for extending option to join the pension scheme and UFBU had submitted its proposals. “No further discussions are taking place, rather IBA is going back on its commitment to discuss the issue to find an amicable solution,” Mr Venkatachalam said.

Meanwhile, Mr Venkatachalam said that the Kerala Government has opposed the merger of State Bank of Travancore with the SBI and had sent a letter to this effect to the Union Finance Minister. He also said that UFBU plans to approach other State Governments on this issue.

Also on the wish list of UFBU is restoration of compassionate appointments.

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Bank employees to strike work on Jan 25