Bank services come to grinding halt on day 1 of UFBU’s strike in Jamshedpur

Save Banks-Save Country: Employees protest

Jamshedpur, March 15: Banking services were paralysed on the first day of the two-day nationwide bank’s strike called by the banking union in support of their demands. The strike comes after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in the Budget announced the privatisation of two public sector banks as part of the government’s disinvestment drive to generate Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

The strike affected nearly 350 public banks in the East Singhbhum district and 500 branches in Kolhan Division (East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Saraikela-Kharsawan districts). Works like cheque clearance,  electronic cash transfer, issuance of draft, money deposit and  bank guarantee were disrupted. The banks incurred a loss of 1300 crores.

Bank employees protested against the government’s move outside the bank branches and shouted slogans ‘Save Banks-Save Country’. 

The two-day strike has been called by the United Forum of Banking Union (UFBU- the umbrella organisation of nine leading bank associations) in support of their demands. The government has already privatised IDBI bank by selling its majority stake to the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in 2019 and has also merged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.

Worst sufferers are the salaried class awaiting credit of their salary on the first of every month. Significantly, UFBU had demanded amongst others a 20 per cent wage hike on pay slip components and five day banking.

The cash in ATMs of several public sector banks got exhausted by noon due putting in trouble several customers who either failed to withdraw money or had to travel long to reach a private bank ATM for withdrawing money on Monday. Several ATMs ran out of cash causing hardship to common-man.

Although the new-generation private sector banks like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank functioned normally, clearing and fund transfer operations suffered on account of the strike.

 Normal banking operations, including cash transactions, cheque clearances, foreign exchange dealings were affected. The ATMs, which functioned normally on the first day of the strike, ran out of cash today hampering day-to-day activities.

 “The strike was successful as all members went to protest on a wage cut. Government should come forward and discuss with us. The unions will be meeting shortly to talk about future course of action,” said an official.

Unions are protesting against reform measures such as the Banking Sector Laws Amendment Bill which seeks to remove restrictions on voting rights of foreign shareholders and increase voting rights of private investors in the PSBs.

Apart from the public sector banks, the Finance Minister also proposed in the Budget to divest a general insurance company. Sitharaman said all divestments announced so far will be completed in Financial Year 2022, including that of LIC IPO and Air India.