Two-day bank strike on Feb 25 & 26

A conciliatory meeting on Friday failed to resolve the issues between the unions and Indian Banks Association.

Employees of public sector banks will go on a two-day nationwide strike on February 25 and 26 as a conciliatory meeting on Friday failed to resolve the issues between the unions and Indian Banks Association.

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"Our decision to go on strike stands. Conciliatory meeting failed," United Forum of Banks Union Convenor CH Venkatachalam said.

The unions are protesting the proposed merger between public sector banks and are pressing for an early settlement of wage revision. Besides, they have demanded another pension option for those who had opted for provident fund earlier.

The unions also want restoration of appointments on compassion grounds.

Today's conciliatory meeting, called by the Chief Labour Commissioner SK Mukopadhaya, lasted for over six hours, but failed to reach an agreement between the unions and IBA.

Earlier this week, union representatives had met Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who, according to union claims, had assured them that he would be talking to IBA to take steps to resolve the issues in a time-bound manner.

The unions had observed a strike on January 25 on the same issues. "We had earlier called for a strike in March last year but deferred it after IBA signed an MoU with them to settle these issues by June 2007," United Forum of Banks Union co-convenor VK Gupta said.