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Bank strike: Clearances worth Rs 40K cr suffer in Gujarat

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BS Reporter Mumbai/ Ahmedabad

A one-day nationwide strike by the bank employees on Friday disrupted banking transactions in Gujarat stalling cheque clearances worth at least Rs 40,000 crore.

Over 20,000 bank employees from about 40 banks including public and private sector banks joined the day-long strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) against the government policies for the proposed banking reforms.

UFBU is an umbrella organisation of five employees' unions and four officers' unions of public sector and private sector banks in the country. "The strike is successful in Gujarat. We are protesting against government's approach of opening up the banking sector to the foreign investments and privatisation. The so-called reforms in the banking regulation act would expose India's banking sector to the global economic fluctuations. It was the structure of our public sector banks that helped India to stay firm even during the global economic turmoil in 2008," said Dushyant Trivedi, chairman, Maha-Gujarat Banks' Association. He further mentioned that outsourcing of bank jobs and encouragement to contractual employment would harm the interest of the employees.

 

The employees termed the recommendations made by the Khandelwal Committee as anti-employee. According to industry estimates, cheque clearances worth at least Rs 10,000 crore were stalled in Ahmedabad alone, while for the whole of Gujarat clearances worth at least Rs 40,000 crore are expected to be affected. Even as small private sector banks followed the strike call, biggies like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank remained operational during the day.

"The management of these large private sector banks are very strong to not allow the employees to raise their voices through unions. This is what the government wants to do with the public sector banks too by allowing entry of private sector and foreign investments," added Trivedi.

A meeting of the general secretaries of the top nine bank employees' associations has been convened on August 10 at Bangalore to decide on the future course of action. "If government fails to come up with concrete measures on the issue, we are ready to go on an indefinite strike," said Trivedi.

The strike also found support from the Gujarat wing of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).

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First Published: Aug 06 2011 | 12:30 AM IST

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