Bank employees to go on strike on July 12 & 13

Bank employees have decided to go on strike, as earlier planned on July 12 and 13, since the conciliation meeting failed to yield any results. The Unions have called for a strike against the proposed closure of Associate Banks and merger with SBI, proposed privatisation of IDBI Bank, among other issues.

C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) said that the Chief Labour Commissioner, Ministry of Labour, Government of India convened a conciliation meeting in his office in Delhi on Friday. The meeting was attended by representatives from AIBEA, AIBOA and SSBEA attended the meeting.

Officials of the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Indian Banks' Association and Executives from the five Associate Banks were also presented in the meeting.

AIBEA explained the issues involved in its strike notice in detail as to why the proposed closure of Associate Banks and merger with SBI, and proposed privatisation of IDBI Bank are unwarranted, and emphasised that effective measures to recover the alarmingly high bad loans is the real top priority for the banks today.

"We stated that instead of taking stringent measures against wilful and deliberate defaulters, the Government is diverting the attention of the people by such steps like privatisation and consolidation as a means to improve efficiency and profitability of the Banks," said Venkatachalam.

He added, the Unions have also pointed out that even on issues like violation of settlement, negation of collective bargaining, imposition of unilateral and adverse service conditions on employees of associate banks, discrimination in grant of housing to employees in associate banks, non-implementation of government guidelines of appointments on compassionate grounds in the associate banks, the response of the management was "disappointing and discouraging".

There was no concrete proposal from the management of associate banks. The government representatives narrated the general policy position of the government. In response to the appeal of the Chief Labour Commissioner to defer the strike action, but the Unions have informed that the were ready to consider deferment of the strike if the proposed merger of associate banks with SBI and the proposed privatisation of IDBI Bank is put on hold and discussions are held on all the issues.

"However, there was no positive response from their side," said Venkatachalam.

Hence the conciliation meeting did not yield any result, the Unions have decided to go on strike as planned on July 12 and 13.