Banks threaten strike on Mar 15 over delay in wage revision

Public banks are planning to go on an all-India strike on March 15, due to delay in wage revision. There is one more level of discussion that is expected to take place on February 21, but the union is not very optimistic about it.

UFBU, convenor, Devidas Tuljapurkar said, “The discussion started from November 2017 and yet there is no closure. On February 21, there is a discussion scheduled. If the results are positive, we might pull off the strike. Having said that, there are less chances for a positive outcome.” The union is asking for a raise of 25 per cent in their existing wages. The last wage revision was in 2012 which was 15 per cent and it was noted then that 2017 will be the next revision period.

Tuljapurkar argued that there is no agreement on non-financial discussions as well. “Our main issue is financial.” There has been no financial mandate from the government so far. The growing NPAs is somewhere attributed to the delay.

He also highlighted the government has been slowly moving to contractual or outsourcing model. “In rural and semi-urban areas, the government has started to introduce business correspondence (third- party) and are not filling up places in banks that are lying vacant. This has been a major on-going issue between the management of various banks and us (union),” Tuljapurkar added.

The banks argue the fall in hiring process has lot to do with automation. But Tuljapurkar believes that with increase in government schemes and rise in number of accounts, this could have a phenomenal pressure on the bank employees.