Chennai: Employees of several state-owned banks including the State Bank of India (SBI) have gone on a two-day strike starting today.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which is an umbrella body of nine bank unions has called the two-day bank strike starting today to protest the government’s decision to privatise several banks in the country.
The bank unions are miffed at the government intent to take up the privatisation of two public sector banks (PSBs). In the Budget 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that two public sector banks will be privatised during the current fiscal.
Soumya Datta, general secretary of AIBOC, confirmed that the union has decided to go ahead with the two-day nationwide strike. Employees and officers from various public sector banks (PSBs), old generation private sector banks and regional rural banks will participate in the strike.
Transactions are likely to be affected because of the strike. State Bank of India (SBI) has already warned customers about the nationwide strike’s possible impact on banking operations such as cheque clearance and fund transfer.
The national bank also requested staff members to reconsider and refrain from participating in the strike ‘in the interest of our customers, investors, and the Bank’.
The protesting employees want an assurance from the government that the Bank Privatisation Bill (Banking Laws Amendment Bill, 2021) will not be tabled during winter session of the Parliament.
The Bill proposes to ‘effect amendments in Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Acts, 1970 and 1980 and incidental amendments to Banking Regulation Act, 1949 in the context of Union Budget announcement 2021 regarding privatisation of two public sector banks’, according to the list of legislative business for the winter session of Parliament.