NEW DELHI : Bank branches could be open only for three days next week due to a day-long bank strike and other bank holidays. To protest against the mega merger plan of 10 PSU banks into four larger banks, the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) has decided to sit on an all-India bank strike on March 27. The Bank Employees Federation of India has also decided to join the strike call.

Next week, banks will remain open on Monday and Tuesday but will be shut on Wednesday in several cities due to the festival of Gudhi Padwa and Telugu New Year’s Day.

Banks in several cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Nagpur will be shut due to the spring festival on March 25.

Thursday will again be a working day for banks while banking services may be affected due to the bank strike on Friday. Saturday will also be a holiday as all scheduled commercial banks are shut on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.

After a disagreement with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) over wage related issues, bank unions had threatened to sit on a 3-day strike from March 11 but it was cancelled later on.

Earlier on January 31 and February 1, banking services were affected as thousands of bank employees sat on a two-day strike demanding a 20% pay hike on pay slip components with adequate loading thereof.

The mega merger plan of 10 PSU banks will take effect from April 1. Bank unions have demanded that the government must rollback the merger plan.

C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA, said it is unfortunate that in the last nearly three decades, successive governments have been pursuing anti-public sector banking policies aimed at handing banks to private corporate vested interests.

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