Consumers are going to have a tough time around Christmas as all the banks across the country will virtually remain closed for five days from December 21 next.
Earlier, a nationwide bank strike was declared on December 26, a day after Christmas which is a holiday.
Now the bank officers union has separately threatened yet another bank strike on December 21, which would brutally hit banking services around the Christmas holidays.
The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) said the strike call on December 21 against Indian Banks’ Associations move to leave officers in scale IV and above out of the bipartite wage settlement ambit.
December 21 being a Friday, bank services will be severely hit till December 26 – except for December 24 which is Monday – as Banks will remain closed on December 22 as being the fourth Saturday and December 23 a Sunday.
A bank strike notice shot by the AIMOC on Wednesday stated that the bank officers’ union ‘demand full and complete mandate for officers (Scale I to VII) wage revision in 11th bipartite settlement’.
The union has also forwarded a copy of the same to the Chief Labour Commissioner in New Delhi.
Notably, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella unit for nine bank associations including AIBOC, has been raising a similar demand and had earlier announced bank strike on December 26 against issues ranging from wage settlement and bank mergers.