PSU Bank Employees agree to 15% Pay Hike, call off Strike

The employee unions at public sector banks, have withdrawn their strike call following an agreement with the management on 15% pay hike although they had earlier sought a hike of 19%. The wage revision will now take effect from November 2012.

“In today’s talks, wage revision settled at 15 per cent with effect from November 2012,” United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Convener M V Murali said. The bank unions had threatened to go on a four-day nation-wide strike from February 25.

The meeting was held in Mumbai between PSU banks employee unions and bank management. The bank employees will now also get holidays on two Saturdays in a month – 2nd and 4th Saturdays. The last pay revision had resulted in a hike of 17.5% for the bank staff. But, this time, it was fixed at 15%.

India has 27 public sector banks (PSUs) with about 8 lakh employees. They have over 50,000 branches across the country.