Bank officers’ strike tomorrow

Vijayawada: As part of the nation-wide strike, bank officers working in 20 nationalised banks in Andhra Pradesh will go on one day strike on December 21 in protest against the inaction of the Central government in conceding their demands.

Over 3.20 lakh bank officers under the auspices of All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) will go on strike and stage protests all over India. The AIBOC is the confederation of major bank officers unions in the country.

Addressing the media at Press Club here on Wednesday, C Surya Kumar, general secretary of the AIBOC Amaravati circle, said the bank officers had been protesting against the failure of the Union government in pay revision.

He said pay revision should have been made in November, 2017, but the government was not responding on it. He said more than 3.20 lakh bank officers working in 20 nationalised banks would take part in the one day strike and banks would remain closed. He said the bank officers had been demanding revision of pay basing on individual performance but the government refused to concede the demand.

AIBOC state general secretary P Naraiah said the bank officers were opposing the merger of banks saying that the bank branches would be closed and bank staff would come down with amalgamation of banks. He further said the customers can’t avail the banking services if the branches were closed in the country.

Deputy general secretary of AIBOC, Andhra Pradesh, V R K Mohan said talks were held several times between the AIBOC and Indian Banks Association on pay revision but in vain. He said the AIBOC would observe strike again on December 26 if the Central government did not respond to their demands.