Employees of public sector banks and regional rural banks will strike work for two days on 20 and 21 January following a call given by the United Forum of Banks Unions, demanding wage rvision and settlement of several pending issues. The strike is likely to cripple banking operations. The national convener offorum M V Murali said the government and the Indian Banks Association have not settled the demand for wage revision which has been pending for the last 14 months. The employees are demanding 32% increase in wages. The forum also wants the government to immediately stop the reforms process in the banking sector as it feels this would lead to opening up the Indian shores for foreign banks. The wage revision of public sector bank employees was due since November 2012. The 27 public sector banks have an employees strength of about 8 lakh spread over 50,000 branches across the country.
