Employee stir to keep banks closed from 26 to 29 September
16 Sep 2019
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Several banks across the country, mainly public sector banks, will remain closed for four days at a stretch from 26 September to 29 September due to holidays and intervening strikes by employees.
The strike has been called by bank employees’ unions, including All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), Indian National Bank Officers' Congress (INBOC) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO) following the recent government announcement to merge 10 public sector banks into four.
The bank unions will observe a two-day strike on 26 and 27 September to protest against the proposed merger of 10 PSU banks to form four bigger banks, which, they say, will result in reduction in bank branches and job losses – all these for no fault of the employees.
Since 28 September is the fourth Saturday of the month and 29 September is Sunday, banks will remain closed on those two days also. This means that banks will remain closed for four days in a row.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had last month announced a plan to merge Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank and United Bank to for the second-largest PSU Bank in India after State Bank of India. She also said Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank will be merged to form the fourth largest PSB, while Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be merged to form the country’s fifth largest PSB while Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank will be merged to form the seventh largest PSB.
Further, she said, Bank of India and Central Bank of India would remain independent.
After the amalgamation, the number of state-run banks will come down from 27 to only 12.
