Chennai/Agatala/Bengaluru: Banking transactions worth about Rs 21,700 crore could not be put into effect across the country as more than 10 lakh bankers struck work Wednesday to demand wage revision.
“The strike call evoked good response. About 85,000 bank branches, including that of State Bank of India (SBI) and some private banks, spread across the country were closed,” CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), said.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, called for a two-day strike starting Wednesday.
The day saw bankers across the country holding demonstrations to push for an early conclusion of wage negotiations.
Queried about the value and volume of money instruments that would not be cleared by the bank’s clearing houses, Venkatachalam said: “On an all-India basis, clearance of 39 lakh instruments with a value of Rs 21,700 crore per day would be impacted. The above value and volume were the averages of last 15 days clearance of instruments.” Venkatachalam said the unions had requested the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to come up with better offer than the mere two per cent hike offer, so that the strike could be averted.
He said the IBA was also asked not to delink the wage negotiations for bank officers in the Scales 4-7. The IBA did not do anything.
At the conciliation meeting on Monday, the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) asked the IBA not to raise new controversies such as delinking the wage talks for officers in the 4-7 scale, he said.
“Though the CLC tried its best to sort out the strike issues, there is no positive development. Hence the strike on May 30 and 31 stands,” All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary DT Franco had said earlier.
According to Venkatachalam, with regard to the coverage of officers from Scale 4-7, the IBA said it did not get the mandate from six banks as they opted to cover officers up to Scale 3 level.
However, 14 banks have given the mandate for covering the officers up to Scale 7 in wage negotiations as was done in the previous wage settlement negotiations, he said.
Franco said: “Six banks – SBI, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Indian Bank – are not in favour of including Scale 4-7 officers under the wage negotiations.” Wage revision in the banks is due from November 1, 2017. According to Venkatachalam, the Central government had been advising the IBA to conclude the wage issue before November 2017.
Unions had submitted the Charter of Demands in May 2017 and discussions commenced with them that month. But even though several rounds of discussions had taken place in the last one year, the IBA did not come forward to make any offer.
On May 5, the IBA made an offer to hike the wages by two per cent, quoting poor financial condition of the banks as a reason. This offer was not acceptable to the unions.
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