P S Sowany of Vidarbha Bank Employees Federation (affiliated to NOBW and BMS) said employees of all four zones- South, North, Eastern and Western, will go on strike on consecutive days from Tuesday.
The zone-wise relay strike beginning with Southern region and culminate with Western zone comprising Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Union Territories of Daman & Diu.
The decision to go on strike was taken after talks at a conciliation meeting called by the deputy chief labour commissioner of Mumbai, the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Banking Unions (UFBU) over wage revision failed in Mumbai on Monday.
Accordingly, the first phase of the relay strike would be held in Southern India tomorrow (December 2), followed by Northern India on December 3, Eastern India on December 4 and Western India on December 5, said Sowany.
Bank unions, which have demanded an immediate wage revision, had observed a national one-day strike on November 12.
Besides wage revision, bank unions have also demanded a reduction in the number of working days of employees to five days from six days as well as regulated working hours for officers.
Banking sector wages and service conditions are governed by industry-level bipartite settlements signed between the IBA and unions.
The last bipartite settlement was signed on April 27, 2010 and was valid from November 1, 2007 to October 31, 2012.
All banks which gave mandate to the IBA to negotiate on their behalf are parties to the settlement. It is pertinent to note here that the IBA has offered a 11 per cent hike in salary and allowances considering the present paying capacity of banks, l Bank employees’ unions all set to intensify the protest over wage revision
