Bank unions defer 3-day strike from tomorrow after talks with IBA, committee set up

The three-day crippling nationwide bank strike scheduled to begin from Monday has been deferred at the eleventh hour, giving a sigh of relief to businesses and customers after the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) reached an understanding on key issues, the union body said in a statement on Sunday night.

All bank branches across the nation will now open and function as usual on Monday.

The strike deferment decision was arrived at after a meeting between the IBA and UFBU at 9.30 pm on Sunday.

As per the decision taken at the talks, a high-level committee comprising representatives of the IBA and UFBU will be formed immediately to discuss the demand for declaring all Saturdays of the month as holidays.

The panel will examine all possible alternatives, consult stakeholders and seek to find a solution that is acceptable to all parties, including bank customers, the UFBU said.

The committee will also discuss the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Scale IV and above officers.

The September 28 to 30 strike was called mainly over the demand of unions for a five-day working week. The UFBU, which represents a large share of bank employees, argues that staff face long working hours and should get off on every Saturday. Banks currently remain closed on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.

The Finance Ministry had appealed to bank employees to avoid a strike, warning of disruption to banking services. It said other demands of the union had been addressed in previous talks, including changes concerning family pensions, while a proposed performance-linked incentive scheme had been kept in abeyance.

The proposed strike would have coincided with the half-yearly closing of banks on September 30.

All public sector banks and regional rural banks had remained open on Sunday, September 27, to ensure that customers get an additional day for branch transactions to ensure their financial needs ahead of the strike for three consecutive days.