New Delhi: Banking operations like cheque clearances, cash withdrawals and deposits at public sector bank branches across the country were hit Wednesday as employee unions went on a nationwide strike to press for a wage revision.
Private sector banks including ICICI and HDFC, however, worked normally.
Services at ATMs of all the banks were normal, barring a few cases where the machines ran out of cash.
Claiming the strike was a success, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Convener M V Murali told PTI: "The strike is a clear warning signal to the adamant IBA (Indian Banks' Association) to change its rigid approach and come forward to for a reasonable wage revision."
"This strike has been forced upon us as bank management did not yield to our scaled down demands for a wage hike from 25 percent to 23 percent. So, we had to resort to one-day strike and all employees had to forgo one-day salary," he added.
Banks, including the country's largest one SBI, had informed customers about the inconvenience they were likely to face.
"The UFBU has given a notice to IBA calling for nationwide bank strike on November 12 and All-India State Bank Officers' Federation and All-India State Bank of India Staff Federation being a part of UFBU will also participate in the said strike," SBI had said.
The UFBU is the umbrella organisation of nine bank employees and officer unions.
The National Organisation of Bank Workers General Secretary Ashwini Rana said: "Bank employees are still waiting for their achhe din (good day) even after five months of Modi government."
The wage revision of public sector bank employees has been due since November 2012.
This is the second time this year that bank employees had gone on strike demanding wage revision. The staff of public sector banks were on nationwide strike for two days from February 10.
There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a total employee strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.
