Bankers to strike work Nov 12

With failure of the wage talks in the banking sector, around one million bank employees will go on strike Nov 12 bringing the banking operations to a grinding halt, said a union official.

"We had scaled down our demand to 23 percent wage hike whereas the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) offered only 11 percent hike somewhat equivalent to the percent hike in the non-performing assets (NPA)," C.H.Venkatachalam of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) told IANS over phone from New Delhi Monday.

"The banks are posting good operating profits. The net profit is pulled down by the provisions for NPAs for which the employees are not responsible. When the banks can provide for NPA provisions, it can also provide for wage increase given the hike in inflation rates," he said.

Venkatachalam said around one million employees and officers in public sector banks, old private banks, regional rural banks and foreign banks will join the strike.

He said at the conciliation meeting held in the union labour ministry in which IBA and officials from union finance ministry were present, the IBA maintained its stand, thus denying the employees legitimate demands.

"The unions adopted a conciliatory approach. IBA only appealed for deferment of strike but without any improvement in their offer. Thus the conciliation meeting also did not yield any positive result," he said.