Two-day bank strike hits business across City

Customers face hardship as banking services come to a grinding halt

Private establishments and business firms in the City suffered huge financial losses due to disruption of banking services after bankers went on strike for two days since Monday. 

Thousands of customers faced inconvenience as they had to reschedule their commitments and prior schedules. “The bank authorities had agreed to sanction Rs 25 lakh loan to my firm, but there is a delay in releasing of funds. This has hit my business badly,” said, S Babu, Chairman, Ashwin Precision Products Private Limited.

Huge losss

K M Pai, Director, Oriental Bell said they had suffered huge losses on account of the delay in receiving money from various sources. “Our firms transact business of Rs 50 lakh a day and two-day delay in getting funds means loss up to Rs one crore,” he said.

A few petrol bunks owners said that they were compelled to keep huge sum of cash with them since the banks were closed. Customers faced a lot of inconvenience due to halting of services like cheque clearance, issue of demand drafts, fund transfers and fund deposits.

“More than one lakh cheques are pending for clearance. However, the stir did not affect the routine financial transactions as bankers had replenished cash inside ATM kiosk required for two days,”  said Y Sudarshan, General Secretary of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation. The bankers staged a protest rally at Mysore Bank Circle on Monday and continued the protest on Tuesday in front of bank’s regional head office. 

“We are seeking the government and the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to agree for higher wages. We have demanded 30 per cent increase in salaries in view rising inflation and cost of living. However, there has been a hike of just 10 per cent. We have told the government that we would settle down for 20 per cent hike in wages, which were not revised since November 2012,” Sudarshan said.

50,000 employees

He said the total profits earned by banks has went up to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 20,000 crore in 2007. But, the government has been delaying to increase the salaries of the employes. About 50,000 employees of state-run banks were on stir on Monday and Tuesday which disrupted transactions in about 10,000 branches across Karnataka.