Operations in public sector banks were hit as their employees started a two-day strike today to press for a wage revision even as Finance Minister P Chidambaram appealed to them to recognise that all profits cannot be used to pay higher salaries.
Services such as cheque clearances and withdrawing and depositing of money in PSU bank branches were affected. However, ATMs provided some relief to retail customers. Private sector banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank functioned normally because their staff were not on strike. Reports from various regions said branches of public sector banks were not operational.
The government extended the closing date of a follow-on public offering of shares of Engineers India ltd by two days to February 12 in view of the disrupted banking services. Chidambaram said here today that it cannot be that all profits are used to declare dividend and to provide enhanced wages and allowances to bank employees. "I will appeal to employees and officers of banks to recognise that banks profits, banks earnings have other claims. While claims of officers, staff and employees must be duly acknowledged, and a fair and just (wage) settlement is arrived at, there are other claimants to banks' profit," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said here .
Employees were compelled to take this route as the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) did not come up with an improved wage offer, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Convener M V Murali said. The IBA represents bank managements. Banks, including the State Bank of India, the country'slargest, had informed customers in advance about the likely inconvenience they would face during the strike.
The unions had rejected the IBA's offer of a 10 per cent wage hike during a conciliation meeting held on February 6 with the Chief labour Commissioner. The offer made by bank managements was not in line with rising inflation, General Secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers Ashwini Rana said. "Since IBA and government did not settle our demands, the strike has been forced on us," All India Bank Employees' Association General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said.
"We are sorry that the banking public would have been inconvenienced by this strike due to the non-serious approach of the IBA by not improving their offer on wage increase and discussing our concerns on the banking sector reforms," he said. The wage revision of public sector bank employees has been due since November 2012. UFBU is an umbrella organisation of nine bank employee and officer unions. There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a combined employee strength of about 8 lakh.