No reply from govt upsets bank employees

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 31

Bank employees here on Thursday expressed their anger by saying that it was unfortunate on part of the government that there was not even a single reply from it with regard to their demands.

Amrit Lal, convenor, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), Jalandhar unit, said they had been protesting for their demands, but not even a single word from the government had hurt the employees who were on strike for the past two days.

Bank employees have been protesting the Indian Bank Association’s (IBA) “meagre” offer of 2 per cent hike in wages. Many women employees also joined the protest, saying the government must think of the challenges a middle-class person faces in daily life.

They said the government could have given an assurance or a meeting with them to talk on the matter.

The bank union leaders said the closure of banks had hit the routine of people, as many of them couldn’t take loans from the banks and other bank-related services were also affected.

The clearing house remained suspended for both days and around 50,000 cheques for Rs 1,000 crore were not cleared on both days. Cash transactions of Rs 1000 crore were also affected in two days. Business of Rs 2000 crore was affected in Jalandhar city on account of the strike on both days, as informed by the bank union employees.

Many ATMs in the city also started getting dried up in late evening, while in some of the ATMs, Rs 100 and Rs 500 notes were not available.

An ATM at Dilkusha Market near Jyoti Chowk here had not been working, and due to the strike for two days, no one came to for its service.

As many as 360 bank branches in the city and 850 branches in the district remained closed for two days. The shutters of branches remained down because the managers and supervisory staff also observed strike.

Amrit Lal said the employees were demanding early wage revision settlement and an adequate increase in their salary and improvement in other service conditions.

Members of various bank unions also addressed the employees and expressed their anger. They raised various issues and said they were suffering due to the “anti-employee” policies of the government.

Amrit Lal said more strikes would be held if the government did not accept their demands. He also demanded wage revision for officials from scale IV to VII.