Strike by RBI employees to hit clearance of cheques
19 Feb 2009
Employee unions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will strike work on Friday to press their demand for parity in pension with the central and state government employees.
The strike by four unions policy, representing 21,500 clerks, typists and attendants, could affect clearing of cheques, RBI has warned the public.
Officials of the All India Reserve Bank of India Employees Association said the strike has been called after the government refused to align the RBI's pensions with those of the central and state governments.
The strike could affect clearance for four days as Monday turns out to be a holiday for banks. It could also hit bonds trading, RBI has said.
The delay in cheque clearing operations for almost four days could also affect the debt market and settlement transactions in the currency market.
The central bank runs the electronic trading platform on which majority of participants, including banks, deal in debt market.
This could also affect trading in stock exchanges as payments and settlements would be delayed till Tuesday instead of this Friday as is the norm under the T+2 settlement cycle.
Banks will be open on Saturday, but stock exchanges and depositories are closed that day.
