Shivamogga: The common man suffered as the public sector banks remained shut as the employees did not report for duty following the call for a two-day nationwide strike by the bank unions on May 30.
In Shivamogga, the bank employees protested in front of the State Bank of India at B H Road on May 30 morning.
The bank strike comes after the 2 percent salary hike announced by the banks to satisfy the bank unions and the talks between unions and bank management thereafter, also failed to make headway.
Customers of public sector banks were inconvenienced as the dates of the strike coincide with the month end. Services such as deposit in branches, FD renewal, government treasury operation, money market operation were hit. In many places, ATMs also ran dry and people were seen rushing to private bank ATMs. Online banking operations have remained unaffected so far.
Private banks such as ICICI, Axis, HDFC and Kotak Mahindra are working normally. Except for delay in cheque clearance, the operations are proceeding as usual, officials said.
Meanwhile, the United Forum of Banking Unions has demanded an early solution for the standoff. The unions seek early wage review settlement, sufficient increase in salary, improvement in other service conditions, wage revision settlement for all officers up to scale VII among other demands.
