Banking services to be hit as 10 lakh employees prepare to go on strike
India: As employees of various public sector banks prepare to go on strike on March 15 and 16 over the Centre’s decision to privatise two state-owned lenders, banking services are likely to be hit across the country.
All nine banks unions – All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) and National Orgsation of Bank Officers (NOBO) and the National Orgsation of Bank Workers (NOBW) will take part in the strike called by the UFBU.
Services such as deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearance, and loan approvals would be affected due to the strike. However, ATMs are likely to remain functional.
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“Basically, our strike is against privatisation of banks. The government is on a drive to sell off the profitable PSB (public sector banks) and PSUs (public sector undertaking). Not only the employees working for these banks will suffer but it will also affect the public negatively,” Sandeep Akhauri, joint cooperator of the Indian Bank Officers Association told Gaon Connection. He went on to add that the privatisation will be detrimental to the public welfare.
In the recently concluded Budget session of the Parliament, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had talked about the disinvestment of banks following which the bank employees have been protesting against the double whammy of disinvestment and privatisation. The banking sector employees had gone on a similar strike for a day on February 19 last month.
The Centre seeks to generate Rs 1,750 billion from the disinvestment of the two banks.
Apart from bank unions, all the unions in four General Insurance Compes will be on strike on March 17. All the unions in LIC are on strike on March 18, while unions of four insurance compes have called for a strike against the privatisation of public compes.
(With Inputs From Agencies)