Cheques valued at Rs 7,000 crore stalled due to bank strike

In Chennai, thousands of bank employees gathered outside the Collectorate, demanding wage revision, pending since November 2017.

Most of the bank branches here remained closed, crippling transactions, money marked operations, government treasury account functioning, sanction and repayment of loans and other work. ATMs too remained cash starved.

Around 12 lakh cheques of about Rs 7,000 crore value stagnated in the Southern Grid in Chennai, due to the strike.

Venkatachalam said the Indian Bank Association’s (IBA) claim that it cannot afford a higher wage (the bankers were offered 2 per cent revision, while the earlier hike was 15 per cent) as the banks are not earning profits, is untenable. Between 2008-09 and 2016-17, the public sector banks made a gross operating profit of Rs 9,20,894 crore, according to the general secretary. 

“Banks are making losses on bad loans, which is a risk taken by the institutions and doesn’t reflect on the employees’ performance. This is a disturbing trend. If this should be the criteria for wage revision, we will never get a good rise, as bad loans will only increase due to the current state of the economy,” he added. The gross non-performing assets had gone up from Rs 39,250 crore in 1992-93 to Rs 7,77,280 crore in December 2017.

The bank employees will hold a demonstration on Thursday outside Union Bank head office in Broadway.

Banking operations in the Union Territory came to a standstill as the bank officers and employees began their 48-hour strike on Wednesday to press their demands.

Among other things, they demanded immediate wage revision settlement.

About 2,000 employees in the 256 bank branches here took part in the strike. They gathered in front of the UCO Bank main branch and held a demonstration.

According to the bank employees, transactions to the tune of Rs 600 crore was affected on Wednesday because of the strike. However, all the ATMs were filled with cash to ensure that the public was not affected.