Banks likely to be closed from December 21-26. Here is why

Citing the reasons behind the strike, AIBOC Assistant General Secretary Sajay Das said, “We called the strike on December 21 demanding full and unconditional mandate for the XIth bipartite wage revision talks based on a charter of demands submitted in May 2017. No headway has been made in the process so far even after 19 months since the discussion on wage revision began.”

Around 3.2 lakh officers are expected to participate in the strike.

Besides this, the union is also opposing a move to restrict the salary settlements of only up to Scale III by citing non-receipt of the ‘unconditional mandates’ from five banks. However, 15 banks from the public sector and two private banks have already given ‘unconditional mandates’.

“The burning issue of the announcement proposing to merge three public sector banks – Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank — and the consolidation of Regional Rural Banks will also be raked up during the protests,”  AIBOC West Bengal unit President Subhujyoti Chattopadahyay said.

“AIBOC believes that it is nothing but a farcical logic to restrict the wage negotiations up to the officers in scale III whereas the entire officer community is covered under unified Service Regulations,” a statement said.