Public sector bank employees today began a rotational strike to press for a wage hike with staff of the southern region going on a day-long strike.
Subsequently, there would be a strike on December 3 in the northern zone, followed by one in the eastern zone on December 4.
Finally on December 5, employees of PSU banks in the western region would go on strike, the United Forum of Bank Unions' (UFBU) Convener M V Murali told PTI.
“Since the conciliation meeting with the Indian Banks’ Association failed to reach a conclusion, it has been decided that we would go on strike between December 2 and 5,” he said.
The UFBU is the umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officer unions.
Some of the banks have already informed their customers about the inconvenience due to the strike.
The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said 22,000 branches of PSU banks are closed across six States and one union territory.
This is the second strike by bank employees in less than 30 days. The last strike was on November 12.
“We have scaled down our demand from 25 per cent to 23 per cent (wage hike), but IBA is not yielding. It has been sticking to its earlier offer of 11 per cent, which is not enough,” Ashwini Rana, General Secretary of the National Organisation of Bank Workers, said.
“We hope IBA and Government would initiate positive steps to resolve issues without further aggravation. In the event our issues still remain unresolved, we may be forced to resort to more strike actions, including an indefinite strike in the days to come,” he added.