Indian Bank Employees To Go On Strikes Over Salary Issues

Unhappy with the Indian Bank Association’s (IBA), rigidity in the matter of pay hike of bank employees, over nine lakh bank employees will now go on zonal strikes in December, 2014. The IBA is the apex body of all banks operating in the country.

“IBA have stuck to their earlier stand of 11% despite the United Forum of Bank Unions’ (UFBU, an association of over nine bank employee unions) flexibility in scaling down the demand to 23% hike in our salaries. Consequently, the conciliation also ended in stalemate. Hence, relay strikes in December stands. This will be followed by strikes in March,” said CH Venkatchalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employee Association (AIBEA) to BI India. The AIBEA is the largest as well as the old bank employee association with nearly 5 lakh employees as members.

The bank employees had held a mass strike on November 12, 2014 as a response to IBA’s stand on wage redistribution. “The strike was a befitting reply to the rigid approach of the IBA. Two years are over and even though 14 rounds of negotiations have taken place, the talks have not concluded as the Indian Banks’ Association is not coming forward to reach an amicable settlement,” said Venkatchalam in an internal letter to the AIBEA members.

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.

The strike held last week had massive implication on banking operations across the country. Several ATMs were not working while many banks remained closed due to the strikes. This time, the employees will go on protests on December 2, 2014 in southern region, December 3 in the northern region, followed by strikes in eastern and northeastern region on December 4, 2014. Protests will be held on December 5, 2014 in the western region of the country. “If the matter is not resolved then these will be followed by more strike actions including indefinite strike,” stated Venkatchalam.