10 Lakh Bank Employees On Strike Across India; Banks Will Remain Closed For 5 Days In December
Two major Unions have declared strike for 2 days, which will impact millions of customers.
2018 will end with the year’s biggest banking strike across India – 10 lakh bank employees will stop working for 5 days, and cripple the nation’s financial services.
Why is this strike happening? What are the demands?
Bank Strike Across India
Two major bank employee Unions have announced that 10 lakh bank employees will go on strike on December 21st and December 26th.
Now, these two are crucial days, and if the bank strike indeed happens, then all major banks will remain closed for 5 days, from December 21st to December 26th.
Banks Can Remain Closed For 5 Days
Bank strike has been announced only on two days: December 21st and December 26th. But the timing is such, that the banks can remain closed for 5 days.
Here is how.
The strike will start on December 21st, which is a Friday.
December 22nd is a holiday for being second Saturday, December 23rd is Sunday and December 25th is Christmas, hence closed.
December 26th is another strike.
Hence, except December 24th, banks will remain closed for 5 days: December 21, 22, 23, 25 and 26th.
Why Will This Strike Happen?
For December 21st, The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) has declared the strike to oppose wage settlement decision by Indian Banks’ Associations. They have left officers in Scale IV out of the ut of the bipartite wage settlement ambit.
AIBOC has demanded:
- 5 days week
- Salary revision as their charter of demands
- Full mandate for officers up to Scale VII
- The scrapping of NPS or National Pension Scheme
- No third party sales inside banks (insurance, policies etc)
Meanwhile, the strike on December 26th has been called by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which is opposing the merger of Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank.
Ashwani Rana, Vice President, National Organization of Bank Workers (NOBW) said, “Merger is not a solution. It (merger of BoB, Dena and Vijaya banks) was a unilateral decision of the government. Views of other stakeholders like shareholders and employees should have been sought.”
UFBU represents employee Unions of the top nine top Banks of the country, and represent 1 million employees.
Being the Christmas and Holiday week, this strike of two days will impact millions of customers, all over the nation. Department of Financial Services (DFS) is expected to hold a review meeting about the merger of banks and will issue a statement.
The merger was approved in the month of September, 2018.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
