Lakhs of employees of public sector banks continued their strike on Friday to protest against the privatization of public sector banks. This is the second day of the strike and this is affecting the functioning of these banks across the country. The strike has been called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a forum of nine bank unions including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Bank Employees’ Organization (NOBW).
Employees are on strike against the government’s decision to privatize two more public sector banks in the current financial year.
The services of banks were also affected on Thursday due to this two-day strike. The customers of these banks are facing problems due to the suspension of services like deposit and withdrawal, cheque clearing and loan sanction due to the closure of the banks.
Public sector banks, including State Bank of India, had already informed customers that services at their branches may be affected due to the strike.
However, business in private sector banks, especially in the new generation private banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, continued as usual.
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AIBEA general secretary CH Venkatachalam said the strike was taking place against the government’s decision to privatize state-run banks, which play a vital role in nation building. AIBOC general secretary Soumya Dutta said lakhs of bank employees across the country are taking part in the two-day strike.
Significantly, in the Union Budget presented in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatization of two public sector banks under the Centre’s disinvestment plan. To facilitate privatization, the government has listed the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 for introduction and passage during the current session of Parliament.
The government had earlier privatized the bank in 2019 by selling its majority stake in IDBI to LIC and also merged 14 state-run banks in the last four years.