Nationwide three-day bank strike called off after late-night meeting

There is relief for bank account holders. Bank employees across the country were set to go on a three-day strike from September 28, but a day before the strike was to begin, employee unions met and decided to call off the proposed strike planned for September 28 to 30.

The decision was taken at a late-night meeting between the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). The meeting discussed the various demands of bank employees, after which it was agreed to postpone the three-day nationwide strike that was to begin on September 28.

However, it is not yet fully clear whether a firm resolution was reached on all the employees' demands at this meeting. In other words, while the strike has been called off, whether the employees' demands have been fully resolved remains to be seen.

One of the unions' biggest demands is the implementation of a five-day working week. Bank employee unions have been raising this demand for a long time. Unions said that in talks with the Chief Labour Commissioner, the government did not give any firm assurance on this demand.

AIBOC general secretary Rupam Roy had expressed displeasure over the attitude of the government and bank management, saying this was why the path of agitation had to be taken. NCBE general secretary L. Chandrasekhar had pointed out that a five-day working week is already in place in central and state government offices and institutions such as RBI, LIC, GIC and NABARD.

The unions' demands are not limited to the five-day week alone but also include several pension-related issues. These include improvements in pension benefits, a uniform dearness allowance policy for all pensioners, and an option for employees covered under the National Pension System (NPS) to return to the old pension scheme.

Banks were closed on the fourth Saturday of September, so to avoid inconvenience to customers, banking operations were kept running on Sunday. Had the strike gone ahead, banking services were expected to be affected again between September 28 and 30. Services such as cheque clearance and cash deposits and withdrawals could have been hit. The proposed strike was expected to affect public sector banks, older private banks and regional rural banks. With the strike now called off, customers have got major relief.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry had appealed to bank employees to resolve issues through talks rather than taking the strike route. The ministry had also said that after prolonged discussion, a decision on the PLI scheme had already been taken in early September. For now, the September 28 to 30 bank strike has been averted, but both bank employees and customers are watching closely to see what decision is taken on the remaining demands, including the five-day working week, pension reforms and NPS.