BENGALURU: Employees of several national banks, including the State Bank of India, went on a strike on Friday, for the fulfilment of various demands, including salary revision and implementation of a five-day week. Over a hundred bank employees gathered at the SBI head office on St Mark’s Road on Friday morning and shouted slogans highlighting their demands. The strike has been called by All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), comprising 3,20,000 members.
As per a release issued by AIBOC, negotiations for a new wage structure for bank employees began in May 2017, and since then, no headway has been made in the process. AIBOC has opposed the fact that wage revision negotiations are restricted up to scale III officers.
Employees have also opposed the announcement proposing to merge three public sector banks and the consolidation of regional rural banks. The proposal, announced in September 2018, is to merge Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank.
The release states that such a merger would result in a closure of hundreds of bank branches and affect credit flow to the rural sector, thus affecting farmers, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, self-help groups and the common man. AIBOC has filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court in this regard.
The other points of contention for AIBOC include alleged attacks on bankers while discharging official duties across the country, reduction of medical benefits to officers, the alleged ‘dictatorial and oppressive’ regime in the Catholic Syrian Bank and HR issues in IDBI bank. The confederation intends to submit a memorandum regarding their demands to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.