Bank staff strike to hit retail trade

INDORE: Retailers in the state would be affected by the two-day nationwide strike by banks on August 22 and 23 while the impact would be minimal on the big corporate houses and the common man, who are mostly dependent on ATMs for emergency cash withdrawals.
On an average, the daily retail transactions total about Rs 10,000 crore in Indore alone per day.They are mostly in cash. The sarafa and commodity traders solely depend on branch banking for their day-to-day cash transactions.
Nearly 10 lakh bank employees and officers, working in 27 public sector banks PSBs including SBI, IDBI, and 12 old generation private sector banks and 8 foreign banks across the country, will observe two-day nationwide strike against the Union government’s move to amend banking laws bill which is in the parliament.
The strike call has been given by the united forum of bank unions (UFBU) consisting of five award staff unions like AIBEA-NCBE-BEFI-INBEF-NOBW and four officers unions like AIBOC-AIBOA-INBOC-NOBO.
The Bill is likely to come up for debate during the ongoing monsoon session of parliament, said Vishwas Utagi, secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA). Bank employees will resort to flash strike on the day when it will be discussed in the parliament, added Utagi.
Kulbhushan Subedar, DGM IDBI said, “The retailer trading community, which depend on heavy cash on a daily basis for their day-to-day transaction will be affected the most during the strike. We have already provided sufficient cash for overnight vault to the third parties like Euronet so as to ensure that ATMs don’t be cashless during the ongoing festive season”.
The agitating bank employees will take out a rally against the ‘anti-bank staff policies’ of the government on the first day of the strike. The rally will start from Sheetala Mata Bazar and conclude at Rajwada. A L Madhuraj, zonal head, SBI Award Staff Union, Bhopal circle, said, “We are all set to make the forthcoming strike successful”. Umesh Singh, general manager, Central Bank of India and convenor, state level bankers’ committee (SLBC), said, “There will be no impact on the functioning of alternate banking channels like internet banking and ATM transactions during the strike”.