Bank Employees To Observe Strike On Jan 8 : AIBEA
28 December, Chennai
In tune with the call given by the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), about 3 lakh bank employees in workmen cadre in Public Sector banks, old generation private sector banks and foreign banks will observe a one-day protest strike across the country on January 8, 2016.
The strike call has been given to protest against the violation of bilateral settlement by the five Associate Banks of State Bank of India ( State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur) and their attempt to force unilateral service conditions on the employees, AIBEA General SecretaryCH.Venkatachalam said here Monday.
He said a common Settlement was signed between Indian Banks Association (IBA-management body) and AIBEA in May this year, which defined the duties and remuneration of the employees for undertaking various jobs in the Banks.
The 5 Associate Banks are parties to this Settlement and hence are governed by it. In SBI, there are different set of service conditions based on the ‘in-house agreement’ between the management and the Union. This agreement is not applicable to other Banks. But the managements of the 5 Associate Banks are implementing the service conditions of SBI in its banks which is illegal and violation of the Settlement.
Venkatachalam said AIBEA has been protesting against this illegal action of the management but the management has now unilaterally changed the service conditions without holding any discussion or agreement with the Union.
The AIBEA General Secretary also said it gave the call for strike on December 1 and 2 this month but at the intervention of the Dy. Chief Labour Commissioner, New Delhi, the strike was deferred to pave the way for resolving the issue by mutual discussions. But the managements of the Associate Banks are adamant and are going ahead with the illegal action, he added. Hence, Venkatachalam said, we have given the call for strike on January 8 to protest against this illegal action of the managements.
‘The strike will affect the normal banking services in the Banks all over the country but the strike has been forced on us because of the refusal of the management to withdraw their illegal action and resolve the problems by mutual discussions,’ he said.