State-Owned Banks On Strike Today Over Merger

Bhubaneswar: A day after national holiday for Christmas, services of state-owned banks may get disrupted on Wednesday due to a nation-wide strike call.

About 1 million employees of various banks, including some private lenders, have called for the strike to protest against the proposed merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda.

Most of the banks have already informed customers about the strike being organised by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). It is an umbrella organisation of nine bank unions, including the All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE) and the National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).

According to the unions, a large number of branches will be closed post-merger and customers will face hardships as already banks are burdened with various government schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra, social security insurance and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Private sector banks will function as usual.

This will be the second bank strike in less than a week.

On December 21, an officers’ union of state-run banks had observed a day-long strike on similar grounds along with demand for immediate settlement of their wage negotiations. The strike by around 3.20 lakh officers had affected services like deposits and withdrawal at branches and cheque clearances and issuance of demand drafts.

In September, the government had announced the merger of state-owned Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, with larger peer Bank of Baroda, creating the third-largest lender.

Last year, State Bank of India had merged five of its subsidiary banks with itself and took over Bharatiya Mahila Bank, catapulting it to among the top 50 global lenders.