The two day Nation wide bank strike had affected banking operations at large, including cash withdrawal and cheque clearance.
The strike was held by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) to press for wage revision pending since November 2017.
Although, the private sector banks were working without any problem.
Even branches of many places in the country remained closed and some of the ATMs also went dry, according to reports coming various parts of the country.
SBI, and many other banks had informed the customers in advance about the strike, and told them that operations may get impacted as well.
The strike coincided with the beginning of the Budget session of Parliament and presentation of Union Budget 2020-21.
The UFBU decided to go on strike when its demand regarding wage revision was failed in its discussion with Indian Banks Association (IBA) on Thursday.
During discussions, the IBA offered upto 12.5 per cent, but this was not acceptable, the unions said.
“The bank managements and IBA did not come forward to settle the demands with a reasonable increase in salary looking to inflation and heavy workload on the employees,” the UFBU said.
“IBA is claiming five-day banking is not possible due to the tough economic situation in the country. Then how RBI, Department of Financial Services (DFS), NCLT, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and other central and state departments are working for five days in a week? Are these institutions not worried about the economic slowdown?” asked a section of agitating bankers.