Bank employees may strike work on 10 and 11 February in the wake of a call by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) as the conciliation talks with the banks’ management regarding raise in wages remained inconclusive. The next round of talks are salted for 13 February. To avert the two-day bank strike, chief labour commissioner B.K. Sanwaria has directed the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to hold conciliation meeting with the Union representatives in New Delhi. As the management failed to improve its earlier offer of 10% of wage increase, the UFBU officials announced the strike. The bank employees were to go on a strike in Janaury, but it was deferred as IBA increased its offer from 5% to 9.5% and promised to improve it further. During its last meeting on 27 January, IBA improved its offer to 10%. Following this, UFBU representatives, who have been seeking an increase of nearly 30%, as the wage revision of public sector bank employees was due since November 2012, called for the strike.
