Employee unions of public sector banks across the country will go on zone-wise relay strike from December 2 to 5 to press for wage revision. The public sector bankemployees had stopped work on November 12 on the wage issue, affecting services like cheque clearance and withdrawal from branches across the country. The strike call was given by United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU).

"After the nation-wide stir (on Nov 12), we are moving close to our next action - that is relay zonal strike scheduled from December 2 to 5. "This will be first such strike in the banking industry," C H Venkatchalam, General Secretary, All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) told PTI. AIBEA is a major constituent of UFBU, an umbrella organisation of nine bank employee and officer unions.

According to the programme finalised by the unions, the strike will be preceded by demonstrations in each zone. Bank employees of Southern Zone will be the first to go on strike, on December 2, followed by Northern Zone (Dec 3), Eastern Zone (Dec 4) and Western Zone (Dec 5), said Venkatchalam. "We hope the IBA (Indian Banks' Association) and the Government would understand the seriousness of the issue and initiate steps to resolve it at the earliest.

"In the event of the issue remaining unresolved, we may be forced to resort to more strike actions, including indefinite strike, in the days to come," he warned. The wage revision of public sector bank employees has been due since November 2012. While the unions demanded a 25 per cent rise in wages and later scaled it down to 23 per cent, the IBA stuck to its position of 11 per cent increase. There are 27 public sector banks in the country with a combined employee strength of about 8 lakh. There are about 50,000 branches of these banks across the country.  (PTI - DNA)