Banking services at state-owned banks will be hit on Thursday with PSU bank unions set to continue their two-day strike.
“We will continue our agitation as planned,” said CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees Association.
Operations of private banks such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were normal. But the strike at PSU banks on Wednesday is estimated to have held up over 39 lakh cheques involving ₹21,700 crore, according to Venkatachalam.
Industry body ASSOCHAM had estimated that as much as ₹20,000 crore of customer transactions would be hit by the two-day strike.
PSU banks had asked customers to use digital banking systems and had also promised sufficient cash in ATMs.
Banking transactions are expected to see a bigger hit on the second day of the strike as it coincides with the end of the month and could hold up salary withdrawals from ATMs.
Other activities, including deposits in bank branches, renewal of fixed deposits, government treasury operations and money market operations, are also expected to be impacted by the strike.
“Our intent was not to make the customers suffer but the strike has been successful,” said Ashwini Rana, Vice-President, National Organisation of Bank Workers, adding that the unions will meet later to discuss the next phase of their agitation.
Over 10 lakh PSU bank employees are participating in the two-day strike, which was called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) following failure of talks with the Indian Banks’ Association for wage negotiation. The IBA had proposed a wage hike of 2 per cent, which the bank unions termed meagre.
Next wage negotiations
Sources said the bank unions and IBA are likely to hold another round of wage negotiations in June.
“However, there has been no confirmation from the government or the IBA on whether they will agree to a higher revision in wages,” said the source.