Nainital : Those who need to make use of banking services in the next few days should go ahead immediately. Government banks across the state could remain closed for six days starting from January 21.

The employees of government banks have planned a four-day strike from January 21 to January 24 in the state in case talks by Indian Bank Association in Mumbai with the government on Monday fails. The talks are to be held on the issue of implementation of the 10th pay band pending for at least two years now. If so, then, the strike will stretch on to six full days as January 25 is Sunday and January 26, Republic Day.

“Huge wage discrepancies in the wages of bank employees need serious attention but our demands went unheard for at least three years now. The statewide strike proposed on January 7 was called off by the bank unions after intervention of the IBA and Centre,” said Pravin Shah, president of the Uttarakhand Bank Employees Union.

Around 1,500 branches of government banks will remain closed in the state for almost a week causing a loss running into Rs 500 crore a day. The employees of government banks are planning a four-day strike demanding to implement of 10th pay band pending for at least two years now.

Earlier, employees of government banks had gone on strike for a day on December 3, stalling transactions worth Rs 500 crore. People had to use to ATMs of government and private banks to make withdrawls.

Since 2012, as many as 16 rounds of negotiations have failed to end the stalemate reach an agreement between central government and banks, said union members. The negotiations with the central government failed to reach to an agreement acceptable to all stakeholders.

