An agreement has been reached between IBA and banking organizations for talks. According to the agreement, on July 1, talks will be held on different demands of the bank organizations. AIBEA General Secretary CH Venkatachalam gave this information.
Bank unions have postponed the proposed strike on June 27. The unions say that they will sit to discuss their demands and the focus will be on resolving the matter through talks. Due to their demands, the organizations of the bank had planned to stop the work on June 27. But the Indian Banks Association (IBA) is ready to consider these demands after which the strike has been postponed. United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBA) includes different unions of 9 banks which were about to go on strike. The strike was called for 5 days a week for demands like work and pension. The employees of banks want to replace the National Pension Scheme and restore the Old Pension Scheme.
Under the United Forum of Bank Unions, there are organizations of 9 different banks in the country. These include All India Bank Officers Confederation, All India Bank Employees Association and National Organization of Bank Workers. These organizations had threatened to go on strike demanding pension and 5 days’ work in a week. These demands of bank employees are old and they say that the government is not paying attention to it. The unions of banks have already gone on strike and on 27th June also a plan was made to stop the work. But now there is a possibility of resolving the matter through talks, after which the organizations have postponed the strike.
Talks to be held on July 1
An agreement has been reached between IBA and banking organizations for talks. According to the agreement, on July 1, talks will be held on different demands of the bank organizations. AIBEA General Secretary CH Venkatachalam gave this information and said that talks will be started under the chairmanship of Chief Labor Commissioner regarding the demands. Bank organizations and unions have demanded changes in the pension of all pensioners. The association of banks does not want to join the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and wants to be reinstated in the Old Pension Scheme. The organizations are demanding that all banking employees should be given pension from the old pension system and NPS should be abolished. Employees working in banks want 5 days of work and 2 days off in a week. There is already opposition on this matter.
Warning of 7 lakh bank workers
All India Banking Officers’ Confederation’s general secretary Soumya Dutta had recently said that around 7 lakh bank employees across the country would participate in the June 27 strike and would remain closed. If the government and the bank management do not accept their demands, the strike will continue. Dutta said that both the government and the management are not paying heed to the demands of the bank workers. This is the reason why the employees are facing the danger of going on strike. If there is a strike, people will be affected on a large scale. But in time the Indian Banking Association has agreed to the talks. On this belief, the banking organizations have postponed the strike of 27 June for the time being.
There was also a strike in March
Earlier in the month of March, organizations went on strike, which had a serious impact on the functioning of banks. The unions went on strike in protest against the government’s move in which it was decided to privatize two public sector banks. The decision to privatize banks was taken in the budget. Bank unions do not want privatization of banks under any circumstances. There was also a demand of bank unions to increase the interest rate on the deposit amount and reduce the service charge. Banking operations were badly affected in Kerala, Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Bank workers in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh took part in the strike on the second day and stopped working. Apart from the bank, the employees of other sectors also took out a strike against the government policies.
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