Bank employees may go on strike over non payment of working extra hours during demonetization

Bank unions on Wednesday threatened to go on a strike over non payment of their dues while they worked overtime during the demonetization drive that happened in November last year.

Depending on the salary, a bank employee is likely to receive around Rs 100 to Rs 300 for every extra hour. CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary of All India Banks' Employees Association (AIBEA) told Hindustan Times that the issue has been brought to the notice of the government and if no action is taken they are likely to go on a strike or even take legal action. He also mentioned that almost none of the banks have cleared the overtime dues.

According to the newspaper, 4 lakh bank employees who worked overtime are yet to receive their dues even after 11 months.

When demonetization was announced on November 8 last year, the entire country was in a situation of chaos as 86% of currency in circulations had been announced as illegal tender.

There were long serpentine queues outside the banks as people rushed to exchange old notes. Because of the chaotic situation, bank employees worked as much as for 14 hours a day, as their leaves were also cancelled to avoid shortage of man power. as man power was considerably less compared to the amount of work.

Meanwhile, after senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha lashed out at Modi government over the economic slowdown, former Union Minister Arun Shourie had termed demonetization as the largest money-laundering scheme ever.

Blaming the demonetization move for the economic slowdown, in an interview to NDTV, Arun Shourie said that it was the largest money-laundering scheme ever, conceived and implemented entirely by the government.

Stating that it was an 'idiotic jolt' and everyone who had black converted it into white, he said, "The RBI has said that nearly 99% of the banned currency has been returned to banks, which suggests that black or untaxed money was not destroyed by the giant move."

Shourie also said that he agrees with Yashwant Sinha's assessment that others in the BJP share their concern over the government's economic policies but are either prevented from or scared to raise questions.

Earlier, in a newspaper article headlined, 'I need to speak up now', Yashwant had criticised Arun Jaitley over what he called the 'mess the finance minister has made of the economy' and flayed demonetization and the way the GST had been rolled out.

Sinha, a member of the BJP s 'margdarshak mandal' that was set up in 2014 to guide the party, has also said a revival by the time of the next Lok Sabha elections due in 2019 was 'highly unlikely' and a 'hard landing' appeared inevitable.