Extend support to strikes in Bank Of Maharashtra: AIBEA to State Federations

AIBEA General Secretary Ch Venkatachalam in a Circular letter sent to All Office Bearers /State Federations/All India Bankwise Organisation said Unions in BoM have given call for a one-day strike on January 16 in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur branches against the eviction of union offices.

He said all the Unions have come together under the banner of United Forum of Maha Bank Unions (AIBEA-NOBO-AIBOA-NOBW-BOMK sena -MNS-MANS) and they have given a call for one-day nation-wide strike in all the branches of BoM on January 27, February 9 and 10 to press the demands like Recruitment of Clerk/ Officers/ Sub-staff/ Part Time sub-staff, Restoration of Bipartism in IR & HR policies, Work-life Balance and Oppose to vindictive actions/transfers.

About 20,000 employees and officers will participate in the strike, Mr Venkatachalam told UNI on Tuesday.

He requested all State Federations/Unions to extend their full support to this agitation by arranging/participating in the demonstrations.

The top Union leader said the industrial relations in Bank of Maharashtra has been under strain in the recent period. There have been some strike actions also by all the Unions against the continued unilateral and negative approach of the management.

During conciliation meetings, he said some attempts were made to set things right but these efforts did not yield any positive results. From AIBEA also, we took some efforts to sort out the issues but despite assurances, things have not seen any improvement. On the other hand, there is further precipitation from the management.

During our AIBEA’s agitation in November, 2022, these issues were also highlighted, particularly non-adherence to labour laws, non-recognition of trade union rights, Mr Venkatachalam said Department of Financial Services (DFS) Union Ministry of Finance, has also sent their advisory to all Bank CEOs that managements should not be seen violating the labour laws, ID Act and Indian Trade Unions Act. Even this, there seems to have no impact on the management.

Despite the assurances of the top management, the HR Department continues to refuse to negotiate with the duly elected trade union representatives. Similarly, like in all other Banks, our Unions have been provided with premises in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur for the past 30 to 50 years.

Now suddenly the management is forcing our Unions to vacate these union offices thus denying this facility without any reason or provocation.

The AIBEA General Secretary said in Pune (Head Office), the Union premises has been forcibly evicted and Bank’s name board has been displayed there. Adequate recruitments are being avoided with the result that the employees and officers are forced with undue workload and suffering from heavy pressure of work.

Bilateralism is deliberately avoided and unilateralism has become the approach of the H R management, Mr Venkatachalam said, the employees and officers in BoM are left with no other alternative than to revive their agitation.