For second time in a week, 10 lakh bank employees go on nation-wide strike

The one-day strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) who claimed that the government wants banks to grow in size through this amalgamation. The strike has affected banking operations.

The strike has affected banking operations like deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearances and issuance of demand drafts. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty 26.12. 2018)

Around 10 lakh employees from public, private and foreign banks on Wednesday took to the streets in protest against the proposed merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda. This is the second time in a week when bank employees have called for a nation-wide strike.

Earlier in September, the Centre had announced merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda. The amalgamation would have a combined business of Rs. 14.82 trillion, emerging as the third largest bank after the State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank.

The one-day strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), who claimed that the government wants banks to grow in size through this amalgamation. But even if all public sector banks are bundled into one, the merged entity cannot find a place among the top 10 globally.

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“This merger will see a large number of branches getting closed and customers will have to face hardships as already banks are burdened with the implementation of various government schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra, social security insurance, and Prime Minister’s housing scheme, among others,” the union said, as quoted by PTI.

The one-day strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty 26.12.2018)

The unions have claimed that the merger is not in the interest of banks or their customers and will be detrimental to both.

UFBU is an organisation of nine unions, including All-India Bank Officers Confederation, the All-India Bank Employees Association and the National Organisation of Bank Workers, among others.

The strike has affected banking operations like deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearances and issuance of demand drafts, among others.

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Last week, public sector lender Bank of Baroda said the “alternative mechanism” of the finance ministry had accorded in-principle approval for its merger with Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank. Headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the “alternative mechanism” had decided to merge the three banks with a view to create a lender with considerable size, which will be stronger and sustainable.

Last week, around 3.20 lakh bank officers of various state-run banks had gone a one-day strike opposing the proposed merger and sought immediate wage revision. The discussion on wages have been on for the past 13 months between the unions and IBA, and the latter has offered a wage revision of 8 per cent.

The merger comes after the largest lender SBI merged its five subsidiary banks and took over the Bharatiya Mahila Bank last year, which catapulted it to be among top 50 global lenders.

(With PTI inputs)