New Delhi: The four-day relay strike by employees of public sector banks has ended with western region staff going off work on Friday to press for wage hike.
All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C H Venkatachalam claimed that about 17,300 branches of PSU banks were closed in West India and 1.20 lakh employees took part in the strike.
The western grid was affected by the strike with 3.55 crore cheques worth Rs 2.25 lakh crore being held up today, he claimed.
However, private sector banks continued to function normally in three states where PSBs' employees went on strike.
Cheque clearances and deposit and withdrawal from branches in Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat were affected.
"We are still waiting for positive words from Indian Banks' Association," United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Convener M V Murali told PTI. UFBU is the umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officer unions.
"We have scaled down our demand from 25 percent to 23 percent (wage hike), but IBA is not yielding. It has been sticking to its earlier offer of 11 per cent which is not enough," Ashwini Rana, General Secretary of National Organisation of Bank Workers, said.
"Our Hon'ble Prime Minister is praising banks and bank employees throughout the world for successfully implemented Jan Dhan Yojna in a record time. But unfortunately he is not considering our justified wage revision," Rana said.
Some of the banks had already informed their customers about inconvenience due to the strike.
This is the second strike by bank employees in less than 30 days. The last strike was on November 12.
