Bank Employees To Go On Two-Day Strike From Dec 16

New Delhi: Major banks in the country will observe a nationwide strike on December 16-17. About 10 lakh bank employees are protesting against the privatisation of government banks.

The strike call was given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions in the banking sector.

The unions have said they would defer the strike only if the Central government assures them that it would defer the introduction of Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in Parliament.

“The government could not give any such assurance to us and hence the two-day strike stands,” said All India Bank Employees’ Association General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam.

“The strike is to defend and preserve public sector banks and oppose privatisation of Banks,” he added.

The government had proposed the privatisation of two public sector banks in the budget for the year 2021-22. However, on Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Lok Sabha that the government has not yet decided the names of the banks that are to be privatised, reported Financial Express. The Niti Aayog has recommended the sell-off of Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank, the report added.

Earlier, the State Bank of India (SBI) had urged its staff to refrain from participating in the proposed two-day strike. SBI said that going on strike would not be in the interest of its customers, investors and the bank itself, NDTV reported.

“In view of the proposed two-day bank strike on December 16 and 17, 2021, SBI has requested the staff members to reconsider their decision and refrain from participating in the strike on the said date in the interest of our customers, investors, and the bank,” a statement issued by the lender on Monday said. Considering the ongoing pandemic situation, resorting to a strike will cause great inconvenience to the stakeholders, the bank’s statement added.

SBI said that it endeavours to make available normal functioning in its branches and offices banking services to all customers during December 16 and 17.

“However, in the likelihood of services being interrupted or being partially available, we also request our customers to undertake transactions well in advance and use the digital channels for payments/money transfer and other related services,” SBI said.