10 lakh employees reject 2 per cent salary hike, ATM services likely to be hit

Around 10 lakh bank employees went on a two-day strike from Wednesday as the conciliation efforts by the government failed to convince bank unions to call off the stir against the proposed low wage hike. The call for the strike has interrupted the banking services across the country.

As several rounds of talks between banks and the unions did not make any headway, the United Forum of Banking Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, has gone on strike against the proposed wage hike of 2 per cent as against 15 per cent given last time, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), general secretary C H Venkatachalam said.

Under the last 10th Bipartite Wage Settlement that was made effective from 1-11-2012, IBA had agreed for a hike of 15 per cent increase over the total wage Bill, he said.