Bank employees' strike: Services in MP, Maharashtra, Gujarat crippled

Banking services in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were crippled on Wednesday as employees of PSU banks, some old-generation private lenders, foreign and regional rural banks went on a two-day strike protesting a meagre wage hike by the Indian Banks Association (IBA).

About 12,000 branches of various banks were shut on Wednesday in Maharashtra, with nearly 60,000 employees on strike.

Banking services in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were also paralysed, with around 55,000 and 18,000 employees joining the strike, respectively.

In Mumbai alone, around 20,000 employees and officers from 4,000 branches of different banks were on strike. They also took out a march from the P M Road in Fort area of south Mumbai to the Azad Maidan.

The employees went on strike starting on Wednesday against the 2 per cent wage hike offered by the IBA. The association also said that the negotiations on officers demand would be restricted up to scale III officers only.

United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) convenor for Maharashtra, Devidas Tuljapurkar, said banks management have "justified" the 2 per cent wage hike with the losses incurred by them in the past few quarters.

"Large defaulting corporates to whom banks have given loans are responsible for losses to these lenders. But for no fault on their part, bank employees and officers are being denied their due in profits," Tuljapurkar alleged.

He said in the last two-three years, employees have worked tirelessly for implementation of government initiatives such as Jan Dhan, demonetisation, Mudra and Atal Pension Yojana, among others.

"This has resulted into huge increase in their workloads," he added.

In the last wage settlement, which was for the period from November 1, 2012 to October 31, 2017, the employees got a hike of 15 per cent.

In Madhya Pradesh, the services in 5,000 branches of all 21 public sector banks and 11 old banks of private sector were disrupted, MK Shukla, convenor, UFBU, an umbrella body of nine unions, told PTI.

"In this inflation, the IBA has proposed to increase only two per cent in our salary, which is not acceptable. We demand that appropriate salaries should be increased at the earliest," he said.

In Gujarat as well, scale I, II, and III employees across 21 public sector bank completely shunned works today, according to Gautam Thaker, chairman of the Gujarat chapter of Indian National Bank Employees Federation.

"However, the banks ensured that the ATMs had enough cash so that the public do not have to face cash crunch as they will be getting their salaries," he said.

Around 10 lakh employees, working in various branches of 21 public sector banks, 13 old generation private sector banks, six foreign banks and 56 RRBs across the country went on the strike on Wednesday.