Over 1 million bankers in the government and private sectors today kick off a two-day strike over the two per cent wage hike demand by the workers.
A news report monitored on gulfnews.com indicated that the industrial action was sequel to the failure of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to respond to demand for improved pay for the banks’ employees.
The strike is spearheaded by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions, over wage revision that has been due since November 1, 2017.
AIBEA General Secretary, C.H. Venkatachalam, reportedly told IANS that “it is now too late for us to go back on our strike call. We had requested the IBA to come up with a better offer than the mere two per cent hike offer made earlier.
“We also asked the IBA not to delink the wage negotiations for bank officers in the Scales 4-7. The IBA did not do anything”, he added
Venkatachalam said at the conciliation meeting held on Monday, the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) had asked the IBA not to raise new controversies like delinking the wage talks for officers in the 4-7 scale.
In his remarks, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary, D.T. Franco, said. “Though the CLC tried its best to sort out the strike issues, there is no positive development. Hence strike on May 30 and 31 (Wednesday and Thursday) stands.”
According to Venkatachalam, with regard to the coverage of officers from Scale 4-7 the IBA said it did not get the mandate from six banks as they opted to cover officers up to Scale 3 level.
However, 14 banks have given the mandate for covering the officers up to Scale 7 in wage negotiations as was done in the previous wage settlement negotiations, he said.
