Jaitley Asks Bank Employee Unions to Withdraw Strike Call
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has appealed to bank employee unions to call off their proposed four-day nationwide strike from February 25 as talks are on for a revision of employee wages.
The Finance Minister said banks are already in negotiations with their unions and associations for wage settlement and "the bipartite negotiations in a cordial manner is the only available tool for settlement".
Public sector bank employee unions had earlier given a call to go on a country-wide strike from February 25 to press for their wage-related demands.
Mr Jaitley in a statement appealed to all employees of PSU banks, their unions and associations not to resort to agitation approach by participating in a strike and "call off the call for strike".
He said that participating in the proposed strike is neither desirable nor affordable in the interest of the nation.
Earlier, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) convener M V Murali had said banks already had incorporated a wage increase of 15 per cent into their accounting but their offering is 13 per cent only.
"This is not acceptable to employees who have been fulfilling all obligations including making Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana a runaway success. This was accepted by the Prime Minister. Therefore, we have decided to stick to our strike call till our demands are met," he had told PTI.
Ashwini Rana, general secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers, said bank employee unions have unanimously decided to go on a four-day strike from February 25 to 28.
Many banks including Bank of Baroda and Corporation Bank have already informed about the likely inconvenience to customers if strike materializes.
If strike happens it would impact government fund transfer during the time of Budget.
The Budget session of Parliament is scheduled to start from February 23.
There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a combined employee strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these lenders across the country.