The two-day strike by bank employees has resulted in a loss to the banks/government to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore, according to estimates. With ATMs going dry on Sunday itself in some places and as they could not be refilled due to strike, people in remote areas had to travel several kilometres in search of ATMs that had cash. About 10 crore cheques worth Rs 7,40,000 crore could not be cleared. Government transactions, foreign exchange transactions and money market operations were also affected. The strike was called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) to protest the Indian Banks’ Association’s (IBA) refusal to its demand for increased wages as the previous wage agreement lapsed in October 2012. UFBU is not accepting the claim of IBA that banks could not afford to pay higher salaries to their employees. It pointed out that the combined profits of banks had risen by 250% from Rs19,680 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 48,700 crore in 2012-13. It rejected a 10% increase in the salary offered by IBA.
