Massive Bank Strike Announced To Oppose Merger Of 10 PSU Banks On April 1st; Will Govt Listen?

Bank employees are refusing to accept the logic behind merger of 10 PSU banks, which has been now finalized for April 1st.

A massive bank strike has been announced by two major bank employee unions, and this can cripple banking operations across India.

Massive Bank Strike On March 27th

The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA), two of the biggest bank employee unions with lakhs of members, will strike on March 27th, 2020.

This bank strike on March 27th has been called to oppose the merger of 10 PSU banks, which will take into effect from April 1st.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sethuraman has already announced that the merger of banks is now final, and there will no delay this time.

Cabinet of Ministers have already approved the merger, and all regulatory bottlenecks resolved. Even the Bank Boards have given the green signal.

But bank employees, especially those who are working in these banks which will be merged, are not convinced.

It is expected that several jobs can be cut, as hundreds of bank branches will be either consolidated, or shut down.

Note here, that Govt has assured not even a single job will be lost.

Why This Bank Strike On March 27th?

As per C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA, this mega-merger of PSU banks will not solve any existing problems, but it will complicate it.

For instance, the issue of NPA and bad loans will become more complex.

He said, “Banks themselves face problems due to huge pile of bad loans. While the public sector banks made a total gross profit of ?150,000 crore for the year ended March 31, 2019, because of total provisions towards bad loans, etc. amounting to ?216,000 crore, the banks ended in a net loss of ?66,000 crore,”

This strike of bank employees on March 27th has also been called against privatisation of banks, recovery of loans, rollback of banking reforms and increase of interest rate on deposits.

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