Bank staff union will hold protests in the next 10 days to bring their plight to the government's attention

Employees' unions have demanded that the banks should be shut down for 15 days, until the Reserve Bank of India prints enough currency to meet the demand of the customers, a report in The Economic Times has said.

“RBI should take a view to stop banking operations for 15 days till adequate money is available. Let RBI close the banks till money comes,” CH Venkatachalam, chief of the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), has told the newspaper.

The union has been of the view that the RBI was not at all prepared for such a grand scheme of demonetisation and that the central bank has faltered in its implementation. Over the weekend, bank ATMs across the country witnessed long queues of customers waiting to withdraw cash after the salary day.

Banks were under pressure on Friday, the first salary day after the government announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on 8 November, but weekends saw bigger crowds at ATMs as customers sought to stock up cash ahead of the week days.

However, the cash crunch continued as there is scarcity of notes of lower denomination such as Rs 500 and Rs 100. Customers have been getting Rs 2,000 notes from ATMs which they are finding it difficult to use for want of smaller denominations.

It is in this context that the bank staff union has demanded that banks should be kept shut until the RBI is ready with cash. According to media reports, Rs 500 notes are being printed but there is a 21-day lag for for these notes to come into the banks.

It is to be noted that the RBI has not yet come out with exact details of how much currency has been printed and how cash is dispatched to the banks. The union has also demanded more transparency from the central bank.

At a press conference in Chennai, Venkatachalam also said the staff will resort to protests in the next 10 days to bring the plight of the staff to the notice of the government.

On 2 December, AIBEA and the All India Bank Officers' Association had written a letter detailing the hardships the staff at various branches are facing. The acute shortage of notes is forcing branches to ration cash disbursal and this is resulting in tensions, exchange of words, quarrel, abuses, insults, insinuations on bank staff, the letter said.

"While RBI is repeatedly making public statements that adequate cash is being supplied to banks, the reality is otherwise. These statements are making the public to feel that RBI is supplying cash to Banks and bank staff are deliberately not extending payments," the letter said.