4 Lakh Bank Employees Will Strike Against Mergers; Rs 48,000 Cr Of Transactions At Stake

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On September 26th, more than 4 lakh bank employees from across India will strike, and this will result in Rs 48,000 crore of transactions at stake.

This has been confirmed by Tamil Nadu secretary of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation’s (AIBOC).

R Sekaran said, “From September 26 to 27, four organisations representing four lakh [400,000] officers throughout the country will go on strike.”

This massive strike, which will paralyse entire banking ecosystem in India for 24 hours, has been called to oppose the mergers, which Govt. has already announced.

Not only Indian Bank, Corporation Bank is merging with Oriental Bank of Commerce, but Punjab National Bank, India’s 2nd biggest bank, will now take control of Allahabad Bank, OBC, and the total number of nationalised banks will reduce to just 12.

There will be huge job loss, as layoffs has already started after Bank of Baroda merger with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank has resulted in closing down or trimming down of more than 800 branches.

Ofcourse, bank employees from public banks are worried.

R Sekaran said, “Four lakh [400,000] banking personnel will participate in the strike and Rs48,000 crore [Rs480 billion] worth of transactions will be affected in a day,”

Inconvenience To Customers?

Employee Union leaders have admitted to the fact, that such massive strike will impact the customers, and there will be chaos all around.

But they are accusing Centre of ignoring the plight of bank employees, and taking random decisions which will change banking system for ever.

Sekaran said, “We are fighting for the people. Going on strike is our last resort. We made several agitations but to no avail. Public sector banks should continue to exist,”

We had earlier reported that banks can be closed for 4 days, since 4 major bank employee unions: All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO), Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) had earlier announced bank strike from September 25th to September 27th, and 28th is a weekly off since its 4th Saturday.

We don’t have any updated information on this .

No Job Loss Due To Mergers: Govt.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already declared that not even a single bank employee will be asked to leave their job, after the big-bang mergers involving public banks.

She said, “Absolutely, ill informed. I want to assure every union in everyone of these banks to please recall what I have said last Friday. When we spoke about amalgamation of banks I have very clearly underlined the fact that there shall not be one employee removed. Not at all”

This statement had come on September 1st, weeks before the announcement of the bank strike.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in. 

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