A strike by employees of India's largest state-owned bank entered its sixth day yesterday leaving millions without cash and disrupting economic transactions across the country.
More than 20,000 employees of the State Bank of India (SBI) began an indefinite strike on Monday demanding a hike in pension.
The bank's 9000 branches, some in remote rural areas, have remained closed since causing hardship for customers, specially pensioners, and most of the bank's automatic teller machines (ATMs) have dried up adding to the inconvenience of customers.
"I have not been able to draw my pension this month and service providers are asking for cash instead of SBI cheques," said Jaikumar Sharma, a former government employee.
Salaries and pensions of almost all present and former government employees are paid through SBI, which serves 30 percent of India's bank customers.
All major state-run industries and institutions as well as state governments have their primary accounts with the bank.
SBI employees are demanding a revision of pensions to 50 percent of their last drawn salary up to the general manager level. That excludes about 100 officers, including the chairman of the bank, who rank above general manager.
Talks with the government broke down on Friday, with the trade unions announcing they would continue with their strike.
SBI chairman AK Purwar said the bank had suffered huge losses and its business was going to other banks.
"Huge ... unbelievably huge loss for the bank, for the people in the bank and the Indian economy," he told the Times of India newspaper.
The state governments of Maharashtra, Bihar and Gujarat announced yesterday that they were temporarily shifting their business to their accounts with other state-run banks. Several other states were considering similar shifts.
Private sector banks across the country have started aggressively wooing SBI customers to shift their business, saying such strikes cannot happen in the private sector.
SBI is also the biggest player in the money and foreign exchange markets and the strike has adversely impacted this sector as well.
RSS