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Two-day strike:

Employees of the public sector banks in the country would go on a two-day strike from February 25 to protest the Centre’s move to merge associate banks of the State Bank group with the State Bank of India and press other demands.
The union has been opposing merger of State Bank of India’s associate banks with the parent, outsourcing of work and extension of option to provident fund optees to join pension scheme, United Forum of Bank Employees.
Besides employees from all public sector banks, the staff of the bulk of scheduled commercial banks would also join the stir, they said.
The demands of the unions include stoppage of outsourcing, revival of compassionate appointment scheme and filling of vacancies and services and early settlement of wages revision.
Announcing this at a press meet here today, leaders of SBI Staff Union and SBI Officers Association said the strike was a follow-up of the one-day all-India “stay-away” of bank employees on January 25.
Last month, the union went on nation-wide strike after the conciliation meeting held in the office of Chief Labour Commission between Indian Banks Association and the employee association failed to yield any positive result.
Boards of SBI and State Bank of Saurashtra have already given in-principle approval for the merger and is awaiting government’s nod.
Other associate banks are State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Patiala.
Bank work will come to a stop on Friday when over a million employees of public sector banks, including 17,000 bank officers, embark on yet another strike to press their demands. The employees are opposed to the merger of banks that they believe would lead to the shutting down of branches. At the moment, there is one branch for every 16,000 people; the bankmen’s unions say that ratio should be 1: 8,000 in a country where half the population is outside the banking net.
The striking bankmen are also demanding the lifting of the freeze on recruitment of new workers in the banking sector. The unions believe that the banks would need over 500,000 new recruits in the next three years. But the government is apparently talking of retiring 300,000 employees. The public sector bank unions say private banks and foreign banks are also expected to down their shutters in solidarity with their demands.
The employees would go on an indefinite strike towards the end of March if the managements and the government continued to reject their demands, SBI Staff Union (Kerala circle) President K Raja Kurup and Officers Association leader K Rajeevan said.

Functioning of ATMs affects:

Functioning of ATMs of nationalised banks and many private banks in State are expected to be affected as the two-day strike.
“Since money in ATMs is usually filled up on day-to-day basis, the machines might not be able to meet the demand for three days as Sunday is also holiday for most of the banks”.

ATMs MAY RUN OUT OF CASH. HERE’S WHY:
* Most ATMs are maintained by private agencies.
* Rs 25 lakh is the average capacity of an ATM.
* That amount may not be enough to last for two days.

It is the first time in the last three decades that a strike was declared for two consecutive days while on earlier ocassions it was only for one day.

Are bank men and women right in striking work so regularly and inconveniencing customers?
Or is biting the hand that feeds the only way of bringing their demands to the notice of the powers that be?
Is there no other way in which public sector employees can drive their point home instead of conveniently striking work on the monday, effectively turning it into a three-day holiday?
Are the public sector banks still caught in the socialist mindset in opposing merger of banks which is the only way to take on the private sector giants?

WHO ARE ON STRIKE:
All nationalised banks and about a dozen private banks, including Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Federal Bank, Centurion Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank.

WHO ARE NOT:
Private banks like ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank.