State-Run Bank Employees On Strike Today, 4 Other Holidays Ahead
Most branches of public sector banks are shut on Friday on account of a strike called by trade union All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC). However, private sector banks, whose employees are not part of this union, continue their usual business as they are not part of the strike. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions including AIBOC, has also decided to observe a strike on December 26. Taking into account these two days of unions' strike and other holidays, banks will remain closed from Friday to Wednesday except Monday, and the banking services could adversely be affected on these days.
The banks will also remain shut on December 22 and 23 (Saturday and Sunday), and December 25 for Christmas. Besides Sundays, banks at present observe public holidays on the second and fourth Saturdays each month since September, 2015.
On December 26, about 10 lakh bankers in private and government banks will go on strike protesting against the merger of Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank, the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) said in a statement. The AIBEA is part of the nine unions in the banking sector under the umbrella body of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU).
Between December 21 and 26, bank branches will remain closed on all days except December 24. In other words, December 24 (Monday) will provide a window for the general public to carry out any transactions during this period, since the banks will remain open on that day. The five-day bank holiday may hamper banking services.
AIBOC has called a strike on Friday, demanding unconditional mandate for the XIth bipartite wage revision talks, officials were quoted as saying in a report by news agency IANS (Indo Asian News Agency). "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 discussion on wage revision began," said Sajay Das, AIBOC Assistant General Secretary.
During the strike on Friday, services at ATMs are expected to function normally while on December 26, ATM services would also be affected, according to IANS.
(With inputs from IANS)
