National

Strike hits bank services

NEW DELHI: Services in public sector banks were affected, as employees and officers went on a day’s strike on Friday to protest against the proposed merger of seven associate banks of the State Bank of India, and also against outsourcing.

The United Forum of Bank Unions, which called the strike, claimed that about 10 lakh employees staged dharnas across the country.

The UFBU, which has planned a strike again for February 25 and 26, threatened that the employees would strike work indefinitely from the fourth week of March if their demands were not met. Services will not be available to customers in almost all 50,000 branches of state-owned banks for the next two days as Saturday is a holiday on account of Republic Day and Sunday is a regular holiday. The National Stock Exchange, the Bombay Stock Exchange and stock market investors were also affected as no settlement of cash and derivative trades could be carried out.

The employees’ demands include a second pension option, appointment on compassionate grounds, filling vacancies and early settlement of wage revision.

Private sector banks and ATMs, however, functioned normally.

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