New Delhi: Beginning their four-day relay strike to press for wage hike, public sector bank (PSB) employees in southern region went off work today and while their counterparts in North India will follow suit on Wednesday.
All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam claimed that about 22,000 branches of PSU banks were closed in South India and 1.5 lakh employees took part in the strike.
The Chennai Clearing house centre which deals with the Southern Grid was affected by the strike.
About 2.50 crore cheques worth about Rs 1,75,000 crore were reported to be held up for clearance due to strike, Venkatachalam claimed.
However, private sector banks continued to function normally in six states and one Union Territory where PSBs' employees went on strike.
"Since the conciliation meeting with Indian Banks' Association failed to reach a conclusion yesterday, the strike was forced upon us," United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Convener M V Murali said. UFBU is the umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officer unions.
As part of four-day relay strike to press for wage hike and other demands, public sector bank employees will go on strike in northern region tomorrow.
Normal banking operations in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi would be affected due to the strike. Some of the banks have already informed their customers about inconvenience due to the strike.
Subsequently, there would be strike on December 4 by the eastern zone, and on December 5 by the western zone.
This is the second strike by bank employees in less than 30 days. The last strike was on November 12.
Banking activities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana came to standstill following the day-long relay zonal strike.
As many as 85,000 officers and employees of various banks across both the states participated in the strike, V V S R Sarma, convener of UFBU for AP and Telangana, said.
Centralised demonstrations were held at all district headquarters and in front of regional and head offices in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam among others, he said.
PSU bank employees went on zone-wise relay strike after wage revision talks failed yesterday.
"We have scaled down our demand from 25 per cent to 23 per cent (wage hike), but IBA is not yielding. It has been sticking to its earlier offer of 11 per cent which is not enough," Ashwini Rana, General Secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers, said.
"We hope IBA and government would initiate positive steps to resolve the issues without further aggravation. In the event our issues still remain unresolved we may be forced to resort to more strike actions, including indefinite strike in the days to come," he added.
