Most of the 633 branches and all the 10 regional offices of the Kerala Gramin Bank remained closed for the third day on Wednesday following the protest strike by the unions.
The shutdown that began on Monday is to press the unions' demand for recruitment of peons in the banks. The also want the jobs of some 180 temporary peons, who have been working for years on a daily-wages basis, regularised.
Leaders of the Kerala Gramin Bank Employees Union and KGB Officers’ Union have been sitting in satyagraha in front of the KGB headquarters in Malappuram for nine days to press the demand.
On Wednesday, Canara Bank Staff Union's State general secretary, N. Sanil Babu, who is also a senior functionary of the Bank Employees Federation of India-Kerala, joined the satyagraha to express his union's solidarity with the demand.
Rajeevan C., president of the All-India Regional Rural Bank Employees Association, told The Hindu that the BEFI was planning to take the agitation to Canara Bank, which is the sponsoring national bank of the KGB.
On Thursday, the agitating KGB unions would take marches to the regional offices of Canara Bank. Mr. Rajeevan said BEFI members in other national banks in the State would strike work on Saturday in support of the KGB agitation.
Mr. Rajeevan said there over 400 vacancies of peons lying vacant in the KGB. The unions wanted the current temporary peons to be made permanent and to have fresh ones recruited to the remaining vacancies.