Services at the State Bank of India branches may be affected during the two-day nationwide strike – 16 and 17 December – called by the United Forum of Bank Unions, reported CNBC.
“While bank has made necessary arrangements to ensure normal functioning in its branches on days of strike, it is likely that work in our bank may be impacted by strike,” said the news portal.
This comes as the banks have planned a two-day strike in protest against the government’s plan to privatise public sector banks by introducing the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021.
This bill will reportedly bring down the minimum government holding in the PSBs from 51% to 26%.
In the Union Budget presented in February, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatisation of two public sector banks (PSBs) as part of its disinvestment plan.
The government has already privatised IDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and merged 14 public sector banks in the past four years.
In view of this, United Forum of Bank Unions convener Mahesh Mishra said earlier this month that the forum will hold a sit-in against this Bill as part of the movement starting from Friday (December 3), and a two-day nationwide strike will be held on December 16 and 17 in protest against the Bill.
Mishra added that bank unions support policies related to the economic development of the country along with employee and friendly banking policies but not privatisation of banks.
All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) general secretary CH Venkatachalam said that in a developing country like India, where banks deal with huge public savings and they have to play a leading role to ensure broad-based economic development, public sector banking with social orientation is the most appropriate and imperative need.
Hence, he said, for the past 25 years, under the banner of UFBU “we have been opposing the policies of banking reforms which are aimed at weakening public sector banks”.
Members of UFBU include All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Confederation of India (BEFI).
Others are Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO).
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