Bank Stir Complete Success In Gujarat, Claim Employees Association

Though the Standard Chartered Bank management did not accede to the demands of the striking bank employees, Mahagujarat Bank Employees' Association (MBEA), which is affiliated to All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), today claimed that the nation-wide bank strike called by AIBEA has been a total success in Gujarat.

MBEA general secretary Dushyant Trivedi said that because of the said strike the clearing operations in Gujarat came to a complete standstill today. As a result of that in Ahmedabad alone around 1.50 lakh instruments worth Rs 500 crore remained uncleared at various banks.

Similarly, clearing of banking instruments did not take place at other centres like Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, etc, he maintained.

The strike called by AIBEA was actively supported by all the other bank unions including All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), Bank Employees' Federation of India (BEFI), All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA), Indian National Bank Employees' Federation (INBEF), Indian Bank Officers Congress (INBOC) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO), he added.

Emphasising that a total of around 30,000 clerical (award) staff of various banks in Gujarat did not attend office and joined the one-day strike today, Trivedi claimed, "Bank officers, who had attended office, also indirectly supported our cause by refusing to do the clerical work. As such, over and above bringing clearing transactions to a complete standstill, the strike also adversely affected the routine and day-to-day banking operations in Gujarat."

According to him, all attempts made by AIBEA and the Regional Labour Commissioner (Central), Mumbai to amicably resolve the issue failed because of the obstinate and adamant stand of the Standard Chartered Bank management.

Emphasising that a more intensified and direct action may be resorted to by AIBEA, Trivedi said that the association's central committee would meet shortly and may even decide to boycott instruments of Standard Chartered Bank.

"Our West Bengal unit has already started boycotting the Standard Chartered instruments since December 3," he added.

In the forthcoming meeting of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella organisation of nine unions of bank workmen/officers, the matter would be discussed for a common and comprehensive action. This meeting is expected to take place in Kolkata, he added.

"The strike by AIBEA was to protest against the recalcitrant and unfair labour policies of Standard Chartered Bank, which is forcing its staff out of employment by effecting vindictive inter-state transfers in gross violation of the existing industrial tribunal awards and industry-level bipartite settlements," Trivedi said.