Banking operations affected as workers go on second nation-wide strike

New Delhi: Banking operations were affected Wednesday as close to 10 lakh employees of various public sector and some of the private and foreign banks are on a day-long strike to protest against the proposed merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda.

The nation-wide strike has impacts on banking services like deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearances and issuance of demand drafts, among others.

In September, the government had announced merger of state-owned Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with the larger peer Bank of Baroda. The unions are claiming that the merger is not in the interest of banks or their customers and will in fact be detrimental to both.

The merged entity will have a combined business of Rs 14.82 trillion, making it the third largest bank after State Bank of India (SBI) and HDFC Bank.

This is the second bank strike in less than a week. Last week, bank workers went on a strike called by the All India Bank Officers` Confederation (AIBOC). Bankers demanded full and unconditional mandate for the 11th bi-partite wage revision talks based on charter of demands submitted in May 2017.

Services including, ATM operations in some parts of the country were hit.

With Agency Inputs