(LiveMint)
Nearly 1 million bank employees will go on a two-day nationwide strike starting Wednesday, disrupting transactions across the country. Nine bank employee unions across 21 public, 12 private and 7 foreign banks will participate in the strike, said C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA). The bank strike was called after unions refused to accept an offer of a 2% wage hike for junior level officers up to Scale III.
“From unions we made it clear that the Indian Banks Association (IBA) offer of 2% is not acceptable since it does not make any basis for meaningful negotiations since (in) the last settlement, the hike was 15%,” said Venkatachalam.
The latest round of wage revision for all banks is due from 1 November 2017. On 5 May, the IBA refused to revise wages for all officers, citing poor financial conditions at banks. Large public sector banks like the State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank, Bank of India had reported huge losses in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2018 owing to mounting bad loans.
