An umbrella body of nine bank unions have called a day-long strike today to protest the government’s “anti-people banking reforms” and to press the compensation to employees for extra work done on account of booking loan and demonetization.

The nine unions comprised in The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) are –

• All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA)
• All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC)
• National Confederations of Ba    nk Employees (NCBE)
• All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA)
• Bank Employee Federation of India (BEFI)
• Indian National Bank Employees’ Federation (INBEF)
• Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC)
• National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW)
• National Organisation of Bank Officers.

The strike covers all the officers and employees in all public sector banks which include State Bank of India (SBI), foreign banks, all old-generation private banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks.Top private lenders ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are not a part of the union and are functioning normally except the cheque clearances.

The strike has been called because of the insensitive and adamant attitude of the bank management and Indian Banks Association (IBA) and the demands of the union are:

• Accountability of top executives
• Compensation to employees for extra work done on account of booking loan and demonetization or booking loans
• Opposing proposed labour reforms of the government
• Stringent methods to recover bad loans

“The unions in the banking industry have been fighting for more than two decades against the reform measures of the government as these are against the interests of general public and labour force in the country,” All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) said, as reported by India Today.

The strike has affected the work and the bank operations are impacted. Here are the few pointers:

• The functionality of ATM depends on the availability of cash.
• 105,000 branches of co-operative bank and 85,000 branches of commercial banks and other banks are on strike
• Clearances of 40 lakh cheques totalling around Rs 22,000 crore would be affected as the strike covers employees and officers in all public sector banks including State Bank of India.
• Services like cash deposits and withdrawals from branches, cheque clearances have hit hard by the strike.