AIBEA Press
release 2-12-2014
Southren
Zone Bank Strike total success today
At the call of United Forum
of Bank unions comprising of 5 workmen Unions and 4 officers association
(AIBEA-AIBOC-NCBE-AIBOA-BEFI-INBEF-INBOC-NOBW-NOBO), in the first leg of the
Relay Zonal Strike, the strike by nearly 1.50 lacs of employees and officers in
the Banks in the 6 southern States viz. Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Telengana, Puducherry and Lakshwdeep has begun successfully from
6-00 am today.
As per reports reaching us
from various centres like Kochi, Trivandrum, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mysore,
Vijayawada, Vizag, Coimbatore, Puducherry, Salem, Madurai, etc. the strike has
been a total success in every place.
Today about 150,000 employees, officers and managers have participatedin
the strike in about 23,000 branches in these States.
Due to the strike, banking
transactions have been totally paralised and came to a virtual standstill
except in Banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, etc. where there are no Unions and
hence no strike. Clearing transactions
were serious affected. The Chennai
Clearing house Centre which deals with the Southern Grid was affected by the
strike. About 2.50 crores of cheques
worth about Rs. 1,75,000 crores are reported to be held up for clearance
because of the strike. In many places
even ATMs were dried out. Money
market/Government transactions, negotiation of import-export bills , etc. were
affected. Transactions connected with
stock exchange transactions were also affected.
The strike is to demand
early conclusion of the wage revision settlement for the bank staff which is
due from nov. 2012. Due to high
inflation and pricrise and heavy increase in workload, a reasonable wage
revision is justified but unfortunately, he Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) is
willing to offer only 11% increase over the existing wage bill which is
inadequate. Unions are willing to negotiate their demands and accept a
reasonable wage hike but IBA’s tough stand is provoking more and more strike in
Banks. Earlier, strikes have taken place
on the same issue in December, 2013, Feb. 2014 and Nov. 2014. The burden of reduction in net profits due
to heavy provision for bad loans cannot be passed on the shoulders of the staff
when they ask for wage revision. By
stringent measure’s bad loans can be recovered. But to deny reasonable wage increase is unfair and
unacceptable.
We hope that the Government
will understand our viewpoints, intervene and help to work out an amicable
settlement.
C.H. VENKATACHALAM
GENERAL SECRETARY