Bank unions to strike work on 8 January against SBI’s forced settlement with subsidiaries

Around 340,000 bank employees across the country would strike work on January 8 to protest the violation of bilateral settlement by the five associate banks of the State Bank of India (SBI), a top leader of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) said here.

A report by NDTV said the unions are also protesting the bank management's attempt to enforce unilateral service conditions on employees of the five associate banks of SBI.

The report quoted a top official of the union as saying that service conditions in SBI are different and are based on an agreement between the management and the employees' union. On the other hand, service conditions in the associated banks of SBI were supposed to be different, as they are directed by settlement terms.

The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) representing the five SBI subsidiaries and public sector banks other than SBI had, in May 2015, signed a common settlement with the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), which defined the duties and remuneration of the employees in the banks.

However, the managements of the five SBI associate banks were implementing service conditions of SBI, which was illegal and a violation of the settlement, the union has said.

The five associate banks of the SBI are State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur.

The strike has been called by the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA), which represents over three lakh employees across various banks.

The union said that the bank management was planning to force rules from the new year, without holding a discussion with the employees' union, which is prompting them to react.

The union had earlier called off two strikes planned for 1 and 2 December this year after the deputy chief labour commissioner of New Delhi intervened.