Bank Employees to go on All-India Strike on December 21

All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) have called for a strike on December 21, demanding better pay, and that the proposed merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank, and Dena Bank be called off.

This strike was called opposing the Indian Banks’ Association’s (IBA) stance to discuss the issue of pay revision of officers up to scale III with the Officers’ Association. AIBOC has opposed this position taken by the IBA and demanded negotiation on pay revision of officers up to scale VII, as had been done in the past.

The strike call was given after AIBOC walked out of bipartite negotiations with the IBA. Along with pay revision and calling off the merger, they are also demanding full mandate for scale I to scale VII officers, a defined benefit pension scheme unlike the New Pension Scheme (NPS), and introduction of five-day work week. Their other demands include updating or revision of pension and family pension, parity in pension and other benefits of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) with public sector banks, and immediate resolution of HR issues in Catholic Syrian Bank and IDBI Bank.

Also Read: Opposing Electricity Amendment Bill, Power Employees Hold Protest Meetings In Districts

The Confederation is protesting against the attacks and assaults on bankers, reduction in existing medical facilities for officers, and the steep increase in medical insurance premium for the retired.

One week before the day of the strike, on December 14, AIBOC had called for a dharna at Parliament Street, New Delhi. The dharna was joined by bank officers from various officers’ unions. The leaders of several unions addressed the gathering, along with the office bearers of AIBOC. Former Member of Paliament, Nilotpal Basu was also present, and addressed the crowd.

Talking to NewsClick, Soumya Datta, the General Secretary of AIBOC said, “This fight is not just our fight. The farmers are with us, the students are with us, the activists are with us. Anyone who cares about the country will stand by our side, and show solidarity with our fight.” The AIBOC said in a statement, “We have the colossal responsibility of not only ensuring a decent, acceptable wage revision as per the charter of demands, but also to protect the public sector character and nature of PSBs and its welfare.”

Also Read: India’s Urban and Rural Working Class to Embark on Nationwide Strike in January 8-9

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the bank unions said, “The concept of customer loyalty, retention and preferred banking relationships are going to fall apart with mergers. The sudden change of service provider is sure to create distrust and dissatisfaction.” They are claiming that the bank mergers will eventually lead to a decline in job opportunities, youth unemployment, lack of systematic job profiles, along with huge pendency of disparate work processes among merged banks and entities and a huge number of Non-Performing Assets.

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of the top nine bank unions including AIBOC, has appealed for a strike on December 26, raising the same demands.