On Thursday, two major unions in the banking sector declared that they would go on strike objecting against the merger of government-owned banks.
Bank Strike Next Week To Protest Against Merger
Also, if a two-day bank strike which has been called by a cluster of four bank officers union next week turns out to be successful, then most of the bank branches in India would be closed for four successive days. The dates on which the banks might get closed are anticipated from September 26 to 29.
Total of four bank unions such as All India Bank Officer’s Confederation, the All India Bank Officer’s Association, the Indian National Bank Officer’s Congress as well as the National Organisation of Bank Officers are the ones who have called for a strike from September 26 to 27.
The protest has been organised in order to protest against the merger of 10 state-run banks into four bigger banks.
Strategically, the bank unions have declared the strike on Thursday as well as on Friday too. On September 28, as well, the banks are going to be closed as it is the fourth Saturday of the month. And as we know Sunday is anyways a weekly bank holiday. Therefore, the bank will be closed for whole week.
Bank to Go On Strike on September 26 to 29
However, it seems to be a four-day-long bank holiday but it is likely to affect banking operations for whole week. For the next week, the most branches of the banks may possibly be open only for three days in the whole week. September 30, a Monday, might possibly be the next working day after September 25.
This is not just a concern of cheque clearances but also the ATM services might get affected as well at the same time. Due to the bank strike followed by two consecutive weekly offs, the general public might face some inconvenience regarding their work related to bank.
As soon as the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) along with RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement System) payments system turn out to be a 24×7 operations from December, bank customers are going to face less inconvenience for the duration of such bank strikes as well as long bank holidays.
In the meantime, NEFT and RTGS services are accessible only from 8 am to 7 pm on all working days, except the second as well as the fourth Saturday of the month.
Meanwhile the two-day bank strike is not a bank holiday, because of which internet banking along with online RTGS/NEFT/IMPS/UPI transfers are likely to continue available on next Thursday as well as Friday.
In order to oppose the “merger and amalgamations in the banking sector” along with raising the demands of a salary hike, the four of the unions have also threatened to go on an unfixed strike from the month of November.
Furthermore, there are also two other bank employees unions such as All India bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), have also declared an additional one-day strike on October 22 against the merger of banks.
C H Venkatachalam, who is the general secretary of AIBEA, said that around 3.5 lakh employees are expected to join the strike on October 22. There are about 8.5 lakh bank employees all over public, private, foreign as well as co-operative banks in the nation. The co-operative bank employees on the other hand are not part of the announced strike.
