GUWAHATI: Bank employees across India, under the banner of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), will go on strike on March 24 and 25 in protest against shortest staff.
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The Assam Provincial Bank Employees Association (APBEA), the state federation of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), has confirmed the strike, with General Secretary Gaurav Sharma stating that around eight lakh employees from all public sector banks and some private banks will participate. The unions have been holding demonstrations and protest programmes nationwide since February, with further demonstrations planned in Guwahati before the strike.
A key demand of the unions is the recruitment of bank employees, citing a reduction of over one lakh clerical and sub-staff positions since 2013. That year, there were 320,151 clerks and 137,645 sub-staff, totalling 457,796. By 2024, these numbers had dropped to 248,544 clerks and 95,197 sub-staff, leaving a total of 343,741, showing a reduction of 114,055 positions.
Other demands include stopping the outsourcing of regular jobs, absorbing temporary employees, ensuring the safety of bank employees, introducing a five-day workweek, filling workman and officer director posts in public sector banks, and extending the old pension scheme to all employees under the National Pension System (NPS). In Assam, APBEA has organised demonstrations in these districts-Nagaon, Sonitpur, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Cachar, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, and Dhubri, as well as in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram.
