Staff of PSU banks observe strike; operations hit

Banks, including the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) had informed customers well in advance about the likely inconvenience due to strike.

General Secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers Ashwini Rana said Indian Banks' Association (IBA) held discussions with UFBU on December 14 on wage revision.

After lots of discussions, IBA stated it would be able to offer an increase of 5 per cent over the wage expenses.

Since their offer was too low and not acceptable to the unions, it was decided to go ahead with the strike, Rana said.

The wage revision of bank employees was due from November 2012.

UFBU is an umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officers unions. There are 27 public sector banks in the country with employees strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.