New Delhi : Banking services, particularly at public sector banks, were disrupted across the country on Friday as employees and officers joined a nationwide strike. The one-day strike on September 11 is part of a larger escalation by bank unions over the long-pending demand for a five-day banking week, differences over the performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme and other unresolved service and pension-related issues.
In Madhya Pradesh, around 7,000 bank branches were affected, with about 42,000 employees participating in the strike. The disruption was estimated to affect banking business worth around Rs 5,500 crore in the state for the day. UFBU has already announced another three-day nationwide strike later this month and has threatened an indefinite strike from October 26 if the issues remain unresolved.
The UFBU says the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) had already agreed to introduce five-day banking under the 12th Bipartite Settlement/9th Joint Note signed on March 8, 2024. The proposal involves increasing working hours by 40 minutes from Monday to Friday so that Saturdays can become holidays. The proposal was subsequently recommended to the government, but the unions say it has remained pending for more than two years.
The unions have also framed the demand as a work-life balance issue, pointing to more time with families, better working conditions and the changing nature of banking, where many customer services are now available digitally.
The UFBU had opposed the revised PLI structure, arguing that it created a significant difference in incentives between senior officers and other bank employees.
Under the disputed structure, officers in Scale IV and above could potentially receive PLI linked to individual performance, while employees and officers up to Scale III would have a much lower ceiling. The unions argued that this could create a very large gap in incentive payouts. The Department of Financial Services has advised public sector banks to keep the PLI scheme for Scale IV to VIII officers in abeyance for 2025-26, with the issue to be discussed bilaterally between the unions and the IBA.
Read Also : Rare Medical Case : 24-Year-Old Man Found With Uterus During Infertility Evaluation
-
-
-
-
