Strike cripples banking services

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New Delhi, Oct 27: A token strike by the public sector bank employees on Friday, just after the peak festive season holidays, to oppose outsourcing, and to seek fresh recruitments, severely hit the banking services across the country.

The employees under the umbrella grouping — United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) — wanted revival of compassionate appointments, fresh recruitments, an additional pension option and a ban on outsourcing banking services and mergers of the state-owned banks.

Union leaders threatened to initiate a series of workers’ action if their demands were not met. Friday’s strike is the third major stir by PSU bankers this year.

While SBI employees struck work for over a week in April, staff of public sector banks, barring SBI, Bank of Baroda and Indian Overseas Bank, stayed away from work on July 27 raising demands similar to the reason for Friday’s strike.

“The strike was total as the employees of State Bank of India, other PSU banks and old generation private banks participated in the day-long strike,” UFBU general secretary CH Venkatachalam told PTI.

He said clearing operations were affected, as on an average five million cheques are processed every day, besides other transactions like demand draft and cash deposits.

“Unless (and) until firm commitments are given to us, we will not relent,” UFBU all-India convenor Profullo Kumar Patnaik said.

The nine major unions that form the UFBU will meet in Chennai on November 9 to decide the next course of action including indefinite strike if their demands were not conceded.

While the unions opposed reforms in the sector, finance minister P Chidambaram said in New York on Thursday that the government plans to bring a bill in Parliament soon to lift the 10% on voting rights of foreign banks acquiring stake in Indian private banks.

This move, he said, would promote FDI in banking sector. But Chidambaram, who was addressing a conference on India’s financial market there, did not specify the limit to which the cap on voting rights is proposed to be scaled up.

UFBU contends that any increase in voting rights will endanger the depositors of private banks.

Union members also held demonstrations all over the country, including state capitals and district headquarters. They argued that there are more than one lakh vacancies in PSU banks and freeze on recruitment was affecting the services.