IBA Revises Its Stance To 12.5%, Bank Employees Defer Strike

Bank employees across India, who were supposed to go on strike on January 7, 2015 over the Indian Bank Association’s (IBA) stance on wage revision issue, have decided to defer the strike after the IBA decided to raise its stance to 12.5%. Earlier, the IBA had offered 11% salary hike against 23% raise demanded by the United Forum of Bank Unions’ (UFBU, an association of over nine bank employee unions).

“IBA has improved their offer to 12.5% raise in salaries. Talks will continue today as well. Hence, we deferred our strikes that were supposed to happen today,” said CH Venkatchalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employee Association (AIBEA).

However, he added that the bank employees intend to go the four day long strike from January 21 to January 24, 2015 as planned earlier. The employees aim to bring the bank operations to halt for almost a week. “The relay strikes will be across the country and will substantially affect the functioning of the banks all over India as the four day long strikes will be followed by the weekend,” added Venkatchalam.

According to AIBEA, the bank managements have cited decline in profits as a reason for their stance on pay hikes. However, the employees have rejected the claim.

It should be noted that the strike held in the last week of November had massive implication on banking operations across the country. Several ATMs were not working while many banks remained closed due to the strike.