Bank workers plan one-day strike on 5 August

The National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) will go on a one-day nationwide strike on 5 August to protest the central government's "apathy" towards the bank workers' demands on salary hike and other issues.

More than 10 lakh employees across the country will participate in the strike, Dinesh Kulkarni, president, NOBW said in Pune.

Kulkarni said that employees of private, cooperative, rural, and nationalised banks will participate in the strike. Nine unions of bank workers and three unions of bank officers have decided to support this strike under the banner of the United Federation of Banking Union.

He said the major demands include provision of adequate staff in banks through more recruitments, maintenance and improvement of customer services and scrapping of the Khandelwal committee recommendations.

''We are demanding that public sector banks should not be privatised and government's equity capital in our banks should not be reduced,''said Kulkarni.

The union is also against availing World Bank loans and merging of public sector banks.