Today in Jammu, a sizable protest by bank employees in favour of their demands was staged.
At around 5:30 this evening, hundreds of bank employees and officers from every bank in Jammu gathered at Shalamar Chowk and held a protest. The protesting workers raised shouts in support of their demands while holding banners in their hands.
Arun Kumar Gupta, general secretary of the Jammu Province Bank Employees Federation, spoke at the protest and informed the crowd about the PSBs’ trailblazing role in transforming class banking into mass banking and promoting the nation’s overall economic development.
The government, he claimed, “is undermining PSBs with its current policies by starving them of essential cash and human resources, and by permitting private hands through disinvestment and projected privatisation steps, instead of further strengthening public sector banking.” He claimed that bank managements disregard the bipartite settlement and violate it by contracting out routine tasks within the banks.
Further, Gupta claimed that bank managements are denying trade union rights, breaking labour laws, and disobeying court orders as well as agreements and obligations made to the Federation. Additionally, he charged management with victimising workers through layoffs and retrenchments.
Both Tara Singh, president of the JPBEF, and A B Khajuria, president of the PNBOA, stated that it is clear there are coordinated efforts being made to deprive the banks of sufficient capital and force them into going private.
They said, “The Government is also weakening PSBs by granting licences to establish payment banks, small banks, etc., and by permitting unrestricted admission of private corporate and business houses to build their own banks.
If the problems stated by the Federation in the strike notice are not settled amicably, they warned the bank managements, there will be more demonstrations and an intensification of the agitation by the All India Bank Employees Federation (AIBEF).
