Amidst the heat of Public Sector bank (PSB) consolidations going on, the government has gained confidence that continuing more such consolidations would lead to reduction in the current number of PSBs, leaving behind some few strong banks that would compete against best banks of the world.
We had already filled you in regarding these consolidations, the motive of the government behind this move and the massive whiplash that the bank employees have been shading against this step. On September 26th, more than 4 lakh bank employees from across India went on strike, which was speculated to have left Rs 48,000 crore of transactions at stake.
Almost recently, 3 days back another one of these massive strikes took place, wherein more than 2 lakh bank employees went on strike, protesting against the mergers of several public sector banks, and shutting down hundreds of branches.
The Govt Has Finally Spoken
In response of these strikes going on and contributing to the headlines of many up news, the government has said that being in the public utility sector, the bank employees cannot just go on a flash strike. The Ministry of Finance also added that banks will have to give a 14 days notice prior to any such kind of strike, so as to not affect the transactions, otherwise at stake.
The government announced this after banking operations across India were partially hit after the 22nd Oct strike, when the employees of two unions sat on a 24-hour bank strike from the morning and another bank officers’ union extended full support to them.
The government has taken this step to avoid surprise strikes from the bank associations which lead to chaos and instability in the banking operations throughout the country.
The Banks Are in Distress
It was noted that the bank employee unions went on strike protesting against the bank mergers as announced by Govt. of India. The four employee unions participating in these strikes were
- All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA)
- All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC)
- National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO)
- Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC)
Two of the largest and most powerful bank employee unions, the AlBEA and the BEFI were part of the most recent banking strike. These two unions have 1,25,000 employees as their members. Bank employees from public sector banks are not happy with Govt’s decision to merge 10 banks, and thus, shut down 6 important and big banks.
Although the Govt has assured that not even a single job will be lost and redundant employees from the merged banks will be allocated different job profiles, tension and chaos is definitely in the air.
The Problems that Were Originated
Banking services like cash withdrawal and deposit at counters as well as cheque clearances were affected in many parts of the country. According to industry sources, operations of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Indian Bank, United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Kolkata based Allahabad Bank were likely to be hit.
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.
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