Bank strike today: SBI, BoB, other public sector bank employees to go on a two-day strike from Friday

New Delhi: Ahead of Union Budget presentation on Saturday (February 1), the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which represents nine trade unions, has called for a two-day nationwide strike on Friday (January 31) and Saturday (February 1) as talks with the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) on wage revision failed to make any progress.

It may be noted that public sector bank employees have been asking for a salary hike since November 2017. The strike on January 31 and February 1 will coincide with the Economic Survey and Budget Day respectively. In total, the banks remain shut for three days as February 2 happens to be a Sunday.

Banking operations across the country will be affected since bank branches will remain closed and functioning of ATMs may also be affected. Many banks have already informed customers that operations may be impacted to some extent due to the strike. Several banks, including SBI and IDBI Bank, have informed Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) about the strike. Banks have also warned their customers that their services will be impacted for two days from January 31, 2020, to February 01, 2020.

It is worth mentioning that earlier this week, AIBOC President Sunil Kumar said that the meeting with the Chief Labour Commissioner regarding wage revision remained inconclusive. "Today's talks with Indian Banks' Association (IBA) failed on demand from unions, so strike call stands," AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said.

According to Venkatachalam, the majority of the 80,000 bank branches will remain closed on the two days. However, private sector lenders like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank would be operational.

IBA's rigid stand has left unions with no option than to go on strike, Venkatachalam said. He further added, "We appeal to the banking customers to bear with us for this disruption in services due to the strike but the same has been forced on us by the bank managements and IBA."

Note that a section of bank employees had gone on a day-long strike on January 8 as well in support of 10 major trade unions' protest call against the government's "anti-people" economic policies.