Government has urged bank employees to refrain from resorting to strikes, work towards resolving issues through dialogue, and ensure that banking services remain uninterrupted. The appeal comes ahead of a three-day nationwide strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions and certain other Unions and Associations in the Public Sector Banks from 28th to 30th September. They have called a  strike in support of two principal demands – implementation of five-day banking, and withdrawal of the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

 

The Union Finance Ministry said that, following detailed discussions, the government has fulfilled one of the demands and decided to keep the PLI scheme in abeyance. The Ministry said that strikes cause disruption in banking services that inconvenience the public, impact the business of the bank, and ultimately harm the interests of bank employees.

 

The Ministry said that the government has taken several measures aimed at improving the working environment, transparency, and welfare of bank employees. These measures include an increase in salary and allowances along with fixation of new pay scales for all cadres, recruitment of bank employees increased significantly and promotion processes were streamlined to ensure timely promotions. The Ministry said, in the interests of bank employees, the Government had declared the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of every month as public holidays for Public Sector Banks in 2015.