Bank strike from today: Over 10 lakh employees to take part in 2-day stir; services at branches, ATM services to be hit

New Delhi: Bank unions have decided to go on a two-day nationwide strike from Friday as talks with management of public sector lenders on wage revision have failed to reach a consensus.Many banks, including SBI, have informed customers that operations may be impacted to some extent due to the strike. The strike will coincide with the beginning of the Budget session of parliament and presentation of Union Budget 2020-21.The strike call has been given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).Earlier this week, a meeting with the Chief Labour Commissioner remained inconclusive, AIBOC President Sunil Kumar said.The wage revision for employees of public sector banks is pending since November 2017."Today's talks with Indian Banks' Association (IBA) failed on-demand from unions, so strike call stands," AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said on Thursday.In a circular, UFBU accused the IBA of a rigid approach towards demands for a fair wage revision settlement."IBA's rigid approach has left us with no option than to go on strike. We appeal to the banking customers to bear with us for this disruption in services due to the strike but the same has been forced on us by the bank managements and IBA. We appeal to the banking customers to bear with us for this disruption in services due to the strike but the same has been forced on us by the bank managements and IBA.".A meeting of UFBU held at Mumbai on 13 January came to the unanimous conclusion that intensified agitational actions have to be taken to press our demands, NOBW Vice President Ashwini Rana said.During the recent period, prices have gone up steeply and the workload on the banking workforce has also gone up enormously, UFBU said, adding that bank staffers expect a fair and reasonable hike in wages in the current settlement.Unions are demanding 20 percent hike on payslip components with adequate loading.In the past wage settlement, which was for the period 1 November, 2012, to 31 October, 2017, the employees got a hike of 15 percent.A section of bank employees had gone on a day-long strike on 8 January in support of 10 major trade unions' protest call against the government's "anti-people" policies.