BREAKING NEWS!!! UFBU TO GO ON INDEFINITE STRIKE AFTER DEC 23RD MEETING IF POSITIVE RESPONSE DON'T COME

UFBU THREATENS IBA TO GO ON INDEFINITE STRIKE IF A POSITIVE RESPONSE DOSE NOT COME BEFORE 23RD.

BELOW IS MEDIA COVERAGE OF TODAYS STRIKE ON BUSINESS STANDARD

Around Rs 24,000 crore worth of cheques are held up due to the PSU bank employees' strike across the country.

About 10 lakh employees are observing a one-day strike to press for wage revision and other demands. The Unions are expected to meet next week to decide the next course of action, including the option of going on an indefinite strike.

C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA said across the country around 85,000 bank branches are not operating due to the strike and this has resulted in non clearance of around 40 lakh cheques worth around Rs 24,000 crore. Besides, Government transactions, foreign exchange and money market transactions are also affected.

He added that on December 23, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) are meeting in Hyderabad to take the next course of action.

The Forum, consisting of various employee organisations including All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), are demanding immediate wage revision, which they claim is pending for over an year now.

The Unions have alleged that wage revision has been due from November 1, 2012. The wages and service conditions in the banking sector are governed by the industry-level bipartite settlements signed between the IBA and the trade unions of bank employees and officers.

Venkatachalam said that the IBA kept saying that banks' profits are coming down due to increased provisions for bad loans and towards pension.

“In both the cases employees are not responsible, as far as increase in pension allocation it was due to inflation, which resulted in price increase and bad loans, again, due to the Bank managements. Why should the employees suffer,” he questioned.

He noted that the operating profits of the banks have almost doubled in the last four years.

Informing the Chief Executives of the member banks which are parties to the bipartite settlement, IBA, in a letter said, "In the event of the strike materialising on the December 18, 2013, we request you to take necessary steps/action including enforcing wage cut as may be necessary as per extant Government guidelines and guidelines isued by IBA from time-to-time...".

The UFBU, apart from AIBEA, includes All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).