Staff of PSU banks observe strike; operations hit

Operations in public sector banks were hit across the country as their employees went on a one-day strike today to press for wage revision and other demands but private sector banks were not affected.
Services like cheque clearances, withdrawing and depositing of money in PSU bank branches were affected.
However, ATMs functioned providing some succour to customers.
Private sector banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank functioned normally because their staff were not on strike.
Reports from various regions suggested that branches of public sector banks remained non-operational. In Patna some private sector bank branches were forced by strikers to close.

"Even though unions had given notice for the strike one month ago, the Government and IBA did not take necessary steps to resolve the demands. Hence, the strike has been forced on us," United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) convener C H Venkatachalam said.

Banks, including the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) had informed customers well in advance about the likely inconvenience due to strike.
General Secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers Ashwini Rana said Indian Banks' Association (IBA) held discussions with UFBU on December 14 on wage revision.
After lots of discussions, IBA stated it would be able to offer an increase of 5 per cent over the wage expenses.

Since their offer was too low and not acceptable to the unions, it was decided to go ahead with the strike, Rana said. The wage revision of bank employees was due from November 2012.
UFBU is an umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officers unions.
There are 27 public sector banks in the country with employees strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.