Trade worth Rs 1.5 crore affected
Jamshedpur : People of the city faced harrowing times as the operations of public banks across the city were badly affected after employees observed day long strike on Wednesday. Work in all most all the public sector�s banks remained shut in favour of the demands.
The bank union leaders blamed the Union government for not giving importance to the employees. They said that the public sector banks are capable enough to compete with the private banks but still the government is favouring the disinvestment. They said that the bank employees should get another option for pension schemes also.
Operations in branches of public sector banks were affected and cheque clearance was delayed.
�The issues include outsourcing of bank jobs and attempts to impose �anti-employee� recommendations of Khandelwal Committee, In addition, there is pending issues related with pension and regulated working hours for officers, said A K Singh senior functionary of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU)
In the name of banking sector reforms, he said, the government is attempting to reduce their share of equity capital in the public sector banks, thereby, increasing the hold of private capital in these banks.
The government is also pursuing their policy of consolidation and merger of public sector banks, which are totally unwarranted and would in no way benefit in strengthening banks, he said.
In some places employees staged demonstration near the bank premises and raised slogans in favour of their demands.
�The strike should serve as a warning to the Central Government that has taken up certain policy decisions without assessing their negative impact on the working class.
Privatisation should be immediately dropped to save the future and employees should be given a chance to opt for pension schemes,� said another union leader.
He alleged that conscious efforts are being made to weaken public banking system to pave the way for multi-national companies to carry on their businesses smoothly without being mired in labour laws.
Meanwhile, people here had to face tough times as the banks didn�t function due to strike.
�I was waiting for my salary to be transferred into my account but due to strike I am left with no choice but to wait for the strike to end,� said Roshan Singh, an employee of Adityapur based ancillary.