The Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), which represents bank the managements, has termed the August 22 all-India strike call given by unions as ‘totally unwarranted’.

SK Kakkar, Senior Advisor to IBA on Human Resources and Industrial Relations, made this observation in a communication to Sanjeev K Bandlish, convenor of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU).

The letter said that most of UFBU’s demands are at the ‘macro-level’ requiring government decision. The IBA can facilitate taking up these issues in the appropriate forum. Some issues, it said, are already under bipartite discussions.

“We regret to point out that under these circumstances, the UFBU has called for a strike, which is totally unwarranted,” the IBA letter said.

It hoped that the UFBU would desist from precipitating action which would inconvenience not just bank employees but also the public.

KS Bhat, vice-president of the BMS-affiliated Syndicate Bank Staff Association, said that the strike call has lost some relevance in the context of a written statement presented to Parliament on August 5. The statement, he said, made it clear that ‘there was no proposal... for consolidation of public sector banks at present, which goes to satisfy one of the major demands of the UFBU.

With negotiations going on on other issues, jumping into direct action now would be suicidal, Bhat said. Instead, the unions should prepare for detailed and sustained discussions.

Bhat said that recovery of bad loans is not the responsibility of employees alone. Top executives, who sanctioned them, too should own up their part.

“Some public sector banks do not have need-based manpower at the lowest level. This, combined with unscientific posting of existing staff, could well have added to the piling up of bad loans.”