Nationwide strike brings banking operations to a halt

IANS 28 February 2017

Banking operations across the country came to a halt on Tuesday as 10 lakh bankers staged a strike against the government's "anti-people banking reforms", said a bank union leader.

The strike was called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), comprising nine unions.

They also pressed for compensation to employees for extra work done on account of demonetisation.

"Around 85,000 branches of commercial banks, 105,000 branches of co-operative bank and others are on strike," C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) told IANS here.

He said clearance of 40 lakh cheques totalling around Rs 22,000 crore would be affected.

The strike covers employees and officers in all public sector banks, including State Bank of India, all old-generation private banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks.

Venkatachalam said the shutdown comes after all attempts to find a solution to the demands raised by the unions yielded no results.

The conciliation meeting before the Chief Labour Commissioner on February 21, failed to break the deadlock as the bank management body -- Indian Banks Association (IBA) -- did not agree to the union demands.

Most state-run banks have informed customers that functioning of branches and offices would be hit if the strike was observed on Tuesday.

Top private lenders -- ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank -- are not part of the union and would continue to function normally but cheque clearances would not take place.

Besides, cash transactions would also be hit and the ATMs are likely to be emptied early during the day.

"ATM operations are yet to normalise after the demonetisation of high value notes. It seems people have resigned to the situation of less cash," Venkatachalam added.

Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

Comments

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Harbhajan Kareer

9 years ago

I ( NRI )deposited the money old currency notes in RBI in January standing in the queue for 3 hrs.at the age of 75 years and to my surprise that the money has not been refunded to my NRO account as yet.Are the RBI going to pay me an interest for using my money for the period the kept in their bank.If a person borrows the money from the bank they

I(NRI) deposited old currency notes in RBI in January but still waiting for the refund in my NRO account.Will theRBI pay me the interest on using my money.
charge a huge amount of interest from him. It looks like the law is only is only one sided as if we are living under a dictator rule