FM urges banks unions to avoid strike

Unions have planned to go on 4-day strike from 23 Feb if second round of talks with IBA fail

Ahead of the proposed bank strike by employees of public sector banks the union finance minister today stepped in to dissuade bank personnel from resorting to agitation. In a statement Arun Jaitley made another appeal to the Public Sector Bank (PSB) employees and their unions not to resort to disruptive measures and call off the call for strike.

The bank unions had proposed to go on a strike from the 23rd of this month for four days if the second round of meeting with the Indian Bank of Associations (IBA) do not lead to a mutual agreement.

"Participating in the proposed strike is neither desirable nor affordable in the interest of the nation," said Jaitley in the statement.

He also informed the employees of PSBs that banks are in talks with unions to come to an agreement on the wage settlement.

"Bipartite negotiations in a cordial manner is the only available tool for settlement," warned Jaitley.

So far IBA has offered an increase of 13 per cent, which translates to Rs 4,095 crore. However, Unions want the IBA to substantially improve their offer and have also offered to further negotiate on their present demand of 19.5 per cent to find out an acceptable solution.

The unions have also held meeting with the finance minister to break the impasse.