Bank unions call for two-day nationwide strike from 30 May to protest nominal wage hike

Mumbai: Employees and officers of various state-run banks have called for a two-day nationwide strike from 30 May to protest a nominal 2 percent wage hike offered by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). In the wage negotiation meeting held on 5 May 2018, IBA made a proposition to offer 2 percent hike in the wage bill cost as on March 31, 2017. It also maintained that the negotiations on officers demands would be restricted up to scale III officers only. [caption id=“attachment_2163947” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “It is only because of provisions towards NPA that banks have booked losses, and for this, bank employees are not responsible,” United Forum of Bank Unions’ convener Devidas Tuljapurkar told reporters in Mumbai. He said in the last two-three years, bank employees have worked tirelessly for implementation of government initiatives such as Jan-Dhan, demonetisation, Mudra and Atal Pension Yojana, among others. “This has resulted into huge increase in their workloads,” he said. In the last wage settlement, which was for the period 1 November 2012, to 31 October 2017, IBA had given a wage hike of 15 percent. Bank employees have organised demonstrations on 29 May at State Bank of India’ branch main branch at Fort in Mumbai. UFBU is an umbrella body of nine unions, including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW).