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Banking business at a standstill as 2-day strike begins

Bank employees began their two-day strike on Thursday, bringing the entire banking business to a grinding halt throughout the country. The employees are on strike in support of their demands, which includes scrapping the move to set up local area private banks, banning non-banking finance companies, and lifting the ban on recruitment.

Spokesman of the United Forum of Bank Unions Tarakeswar Chakraborti said in Calcutta that the strike was total in about 78,000 branches in the public, private, foreign, cooperative, and regional rural banks.

About 60,000 workmen and officers in more than 1,000 branches refrained from work in Delhi. Clearing operations were also affected. Various unions staged demonstrations in the capital, according to Ashok Gupta, assistant secretary of the Delhi State Bank Employees Federation.

Forum spokesman for Delhi V K Gupta urged Prime Minister I K Gujral to intervene and avert an indefinite strike by the bank employees.

A Bombay report said the foreign exchange market was hit by the strike while there was no direct bearing on the stock markets. It said that while there was near normal attendance at the national clearing house, transactions were negligible.

Foreign exchange and money markets remained virtually closed in Bombay with only stray deals transacted. Dealers said some public sector banks like the Punjab National Bank and the State Bank of Travancore made some desperate attempts to buy the US dollars in the range of Rs 36.33 and Rs 36.43. ''Otherwise the market was dead,'' dealers said.

The head offices of major banks like the State Bank of India, Bank of India, and the Union Bank of India wore a deserted look.

A Madras report said that few instruments were presented at the Reserve Bank of India's national clearing house. Employees in foreign banks like Citibank and Standard Chartered also joined the strike.

All-India RBI Employees Association General Secretary Samir Ghosh said that work in the Reserve Bank of India throughout the country was affected. He claimed in a statement that the clearing houses in major centres did not function . Remittances of currency and coins were also hit.

The main demands of the United Forum of Bank Unions, comprising nine important unions, are: the non-establishment of local area private banks, removal of penal clause from the pension regulation, extension of pension scheme for regional rural banks and private banks, payment of equal wages to regional rural banks as their sponsoring banks, lifting of ban on recruitment and compassionate ground appointments, removal of ceiling on bonus/gratuity, and restrictions on public deposits to non-banking finance companies.

Terming the bank staffers' agitation unfair, the Indian Banks Association has said that the RBI has approved, in principle, the proposal for setting up just three banks out of 174 applications. ''It is far-fetched to fear that these small banks will prove a threat to the large well-established public sector banks.''

The IBA said the question of compassionate appointments was not a matter for negotiation. There were clear-cut Supreme Court observations which all authorities must follow. The non-banking finance companies are regulated by the RBI and the Securities and Exchange Board of India, it added.

Indian Banks Association chief executive M N Dandekar said that the strike was ''unwarranted, uncalled for, and unnecessary'' since the issues were not related to banking operations or wages.

There were some misguided elements who have made a mountain out of a non-existent molehill, and such agitations were very counter-productive, he added.

An All-India Bank Employees Association spokesman blamed the finance ministry for not heeding their demands. He said that North Block (where the finance ministry's office is located) even ignored the letter of the labour minister to the finance minister to find a solution and avert a strike.

Meanwhile, the National Federation of State Bank Backward Classes Staff Unions said it is not participating in the strike.

Many bank officers and employees expressed their displeasure over the nationwide strike called by their unions for reasons not related to their own causes. A senior State Bank officer said that a power struggle among the top union leaders had brought "strange bedfellows" together to show their muscle power without any common interest of the bank employees.

"Some people are holding the nation to ransom against the interest of the nation," a banker from private bank said.

M R Pai, secretary of All-India Depositors Association, said that the strike should be declared ''illegal'' since depositors and other customers suffered financial losses and inconveniences.

He has asked depositors to approach the consumer courts and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission to claim suitable compensation from the unions sponsoring the strike.

Trade bodies and associations also deplored the strike saying that the striking bankers should realise its impact and the tremendous resultant losses to the exchequer, besides causing great inconvenience to customers and corporate clients.

While the strike will continue on Friday, a spokesman from the United Forum of Bank Unions said that the forum would be meeting again on September 4 at Hyderabad to review the situation and decide the future course of action.

UNI