look news india
News of great relief has come to the fore for crores of bank customers, businessmen and salaried citizens across the country. The three-day nationwide strike of banks proposed from September 28 to September 30 has been postponed. This important decision was taken after a positive consensus was reached on the demands in the marathon meeting held late on Sunday night between the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the apex organization of bank unions, and the Indian Banks Association (IBA). Due to this, today i.e. on Monday, the branches of all government, private and rural banks across the country will remain open like normal days and all services related to check clearance, cash transactions and drafts will operate smoothly.
Due to the proposed strike, there was a possibility of a major financial crisis in the last days of the month and at the time of half-yearly closing on 30 September. To avert this, emergency conciliation talks began at around 9:30 pm on Sunday night between the IBA management and top representatives of UFBU. In this discussion that lasted for hours, the main demands of the unions were discussed in detail.
After IBA gave concrete assurance on the demands, UFBU issued an official circular announcing the postponement of the agitation and work boycott from 28 to 30 September. The organization clarified that the strike has not been cancelled, but has been ‘postponed’ to carry forward the dialogue and resolution process.
In this high level meeting held late night, written consent was mainly reached on the following points:
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High-Level Committee on 5-Day Banking and Saturday Holidays: The biggest demand of the unions was to declare every Saturday as a bank holiday and implement a 5-day banking week. On this, it was decided to form a high-level joint committee consisting of representatives of IBA and UFBU. This committee will prepare a viable model of solution keeping in mind the interests of all parties and the general public.
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Amendment in PLI Scheme of Scale-IV and Senior Officers: To overcome the objections of the unions regarding the Performance-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, it was agreed to prepare a fresh draft with the IBA and send the amendment proposal to the Central Government.
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Fast decision on pending demands: It was assured to resolve the remaining pending points of the agreement of March 8, 2024, issues related to pension updation and service conditions in a time bound manner.
After the strike is postponed, there will be no lock of any kind in the bank branches. Customers can feel free to visit their nearest branch and get the work done:
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Cash Deposit and Withdrawal at Branches: Cash withdrawal and cash deposit will be available from bank counters through withdrawal slips and checks like normal.
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Check Clearing (CTS): Clearing houses will function smoothly, resulting in timely clearing of checks of traders and common citizens without any delay.
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Draft, Locker and Loan Services: Demand draft (DD), banker cheque, locker operations, opening of new accounts and loan disbursal will proceed at regular pace.
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Digital and ATM Services: UPI, Internet banking, mobile banking and ATM networks will remain operational 24 hours uninterrupted as before.
Financial experts say that the postponement of the strike in the last three days of the month is a big relief for the country’s economy and banking system, due to which business transactions worth billions of rupees and flow of government revenue will continue without any interruption.