Bank staff call for 2-day strike from May 30, demand early wage settlement

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which represents one million bank employees and officers across the country, will also hold demonstrations and submit a memorandum to the Finance Minister

The bank employees in the country would be going for a 48-hour strike starting from May 30, seeking government's intervention related to wage settlement and others. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), consisting of nine trade unions across the country representing one million bank employees and officers, will also hold demonstrations and submit memorandum to the Finance Minister prior to this.

The strike is being called for opposing the Indian Banks' Association's (IBA) delay in resolving their demands, government's casual approach to wage revision for bank employees and officers, IBA's meagre offer of  per cent hike in wage bill towards wage increase, among others.

It would be demanding expeditious and early wage revision settlement, an adequate increase in salary and improvement in other service conditions and wage revision settlement to include all officers up to Scale VII.

The last wage settlement was signed for a period between November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2017, and the wage settlement for the period starting from November 1, 2017, has been mooted by the unions to the IBA, earlier. The Negotiation Committee of IBA held negotiations with the Unions five times from May 2017 to October and held discussions with the sub-committees of workers' unions and officers' associations till November 2017, but avoided the wage revision, alleged the strike notice serviced by the unions.

"We have already informed our units and members about the outcome of the bipartite talks with IBA held on May 5, 2018. In order to draw the attention of the Government, we had addressed our communication immediately and seeking their intervention. As expected, the Government has not responded so far," said C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA).

The organisations called for strike under the umbrella of UFBU include All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).