Banking services hit state-owned bank employees go on strike

Cash transaction and clearing services across the country were hit as most of the employees in public sector banks went on a day-long strike opposing government policies towards the sector.

Public sector bank branches wore a nearly deserted look with only officers attending work and with almost negligible footfall.

All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary CH Venkatachalam claimed the strike was "a complete success as clearing houses remained totally paralysed" with unions of Reserve Bank and SBI participating in the strike.

However, leading private sector lenders such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank and foreign banks functioned as usual as their staff did not participate in the strike.

Similarly, new generation public sector bank IDBI Bank too said it was not impacted as employees are not unionised.

Officers in most of the public sector banks did not participate in the strike call.

Clearing operation volumes in the Mumbai region came down to almost a third to 2.25 lakh cheques against an average of 7.7 lakh cheques per day, an RBI official said. The total value came down drastically to Rs1,500 crore against Rs3,000-4,000 crore in a normal day, the official added.

Of the 95 banks which participate in clearing operations in the region, only 1 abstained from the strike, the RBI official said.

The strike call was a part of nationwide general strike call given by 11 central trade unions, including INTUC, BMS, AITUC, CITU, HMS and BMS, opposing some policies of the central government.