New Delhi: Banking operations across India were hit as members of an umbrella trade union of 47 banks began a two-day strike opposing the proposed banking sector reforms and demanding immediate revision in wages. Over a million bank employees and officers working in 27 public sector banks, including the State Bank of India, twelve private and eight foreign banks and regional rural banks struck work, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) said.

UFBU is the umbrella organization of five employee unions and four officer unions of state-run banks. All nine unions under its aegis have given the strike call. Even though ATMs were functional, operations like branch cash withdrawals, deposits and cheque clearances were particularly affected.”All over the country, about 10 crore cheques worth 7,40,000 crore could not be cleared. In Chennai clearing house, about 90 lakh cheques worth about 64,000 crore could not be processed in clearing,”C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), told IANS from Chennai. "The instrument value and number would go up further, when the strike continues for the second day," he added. With the strike slated to continue, customers face the prospect of ATMs running dry without cash replenishment.

In Karnataka, about 50,000 employees of state-run banks went on strike halting transactions in about 10,000 branches across the state."The response to our strike call is overwhelming, as all employees of 27 public sector banks and a dozen old generation private banks stayed away from work. We will continue the strike," United Forum of Bank Unions' (UFBU) Karnataka unit general secretary A.N. Krishnamurthy told IANS. UFBU earlier called a strike for Jan 20-21, which was deferred after the Indian Banks Association (IBA) increased its initial wage revision offer to 9.5 percent, from five percent, with a promise to improve it further. 

However, at the discussions on Jan 27, the IBA increased its offer by just 0.5 percent to 10 percent, which was rejected by the UFBU. It has been seeking an increase of 30 percent on the grounds that wage revision has been pending since November 2012. UFBU said it called the strike as the discussions on wage revision have been very tardy since the last one year.

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