Bank employees to go on strike on February 7

Workers will also hold a dharna at Reserve Bank of India offices on Feb 2

Bank staff and employee’s unions have given a call to strike work on February 7 to highlight problems faced by them while implementing demonetisation and seeking an effective mechanism of recovery of huge bad loans.

C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) said in a statement: “Everyone is appreciating the hard work done by the bank employees, officers and managers in managing the situation in the banks so well after November 8. But, there is reluctance and hesitation to extend proper compensation and overtime for the long extra hours of additional work done. This is totally unacceptable.”

Banking sector employees will hold a dharna at Reserve Bank of India offices on February 2, followed by a mass demonstration on February 7.

Besides AIBEA, the All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) and the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) are taking part in the strike. Unions said they have been pursuing these issues — demonetisation and action against big defaulters — with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) but with no result.  Hence it was felt necessary to resort to agitation.

The government and the RBI were expected to take necessary steps to mitigate the problems faced by the banks and the public after demonetisation. But an acute shortage of cash supply still exists. As a result, bank branches are not able to honour even the restricted payments of Rs 24,000 and Rs 1,00,000 per week. 

Most ATMs are still not functioning or do not have cash to dispense. This is causing great inconvenience, disappointment and frustration to the customers. There are many instances of customers expressing their resentment on the staff, leading to avoidable tensions at the branches. There is also no transparency in supply of cash to banks, the AIBEA said.

“It was expected that the government and the RBI would take necessary steps to mitigate the problems faced by the banks and the public but even now, we find that there is acute shortage of cash supply to the banks….,” the AIBEA general secretary.

The unions are also demanding that the names of the individuals who have defaulted in paying loans of Rs 1 crore and above be published. Other demands include ensuring autonomy of RBI in cash management, compensation to family of general public, bank customers and bank staff who lost their lives in the demonetisation aftermath and payment of overtime to employees and officers for their additional effort during the 50-day demonetisation period.