After the government’s move for privatisation of several Public Sector Banks, the United Forum of Bank Union (UFBU) has called for a two-day nationwide strike on March 15 and 16. UFBU is an umbrella body of nine bank unions that will protest against the privatisation of Public Sector Banks.

More than 10 lakh bank employees and officers are expected to take part in the strike. However, ATMs are expected to remain operational.

Services that will be affected:

Services such as cheque clearance, withdrawals and deposits at branches, and loan approvals will be impacted.

Public sector banks such as the State Bank of India (SBI) have informed customers that their normal functioning could be affected.

However, banks have told customers that they were taking steps to ensure smooth functioning.

Private sector banks won’t be affected — ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and IndusInd Bank will function normally.

Besides bank unions, all the unions in four General Insurance Companies will hold a strike on March 17. To protest against the privatisation of public sector companies, unions of four insurance companies have called for a strike. On March 18, all the unions in LIC are on strike.

Read here: 10 lakh bank employees are on a two-day strike: Here’s all that you need to know

Banks were anyway shut on March 13 (second Saturday) and March 14 (Sunday). So, this makes it a 4-day break in day-to-day banking operations.

In this year’s Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had made the announcement for the privatisation of two public sector banks (apart from IDBI Bank). According to her, this was an attempt to garner Rs 1.75 lakh crore under the disinvestment drive of the government.

In the strike called by the UFBU, all nine bank unions — Indian National Bank Employees Federation (INBEF), Indian National Bank Officers' Congress (INBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO) and the National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) will participate.

Read all latest updates on the bank strikes here

(Edited by : Ankit Gohel)

First Published:Mar 15, 2021 11:30 AM IST