While union members at the People’s Bank (PB) joined in protests by state bank employees this week demanding a wage hike, a group of PB workers organized their own, unusual protest saying “we don’t want a salary increase”.
In what was seen as a move orchestrated by the government, this group also threw ‘old tomatoes’ at the other protesters on Wednesday outside the PB’s Colombo headquarters, creating a tense situation. “This was a first-time kind of protest, demanding that a wage hike was not necessary,” one union official said.
Meanwhile state bank employees will resort to work to rule avoiding overtime duties from April 9 to 11th in a bid to pressurize the authorities to secure the wage hike.
A senior official of the Sri Lanka Bank Employees' Union said employees of the Bank of Ceylon, People's Bank, National Savings Bank and State Mortgage and Investment Bank will launch the trade union action, on Monday ahead of the Sinhala and Hindu New Year. The move is expected to affect customers of these banks during the festive season. The money transactions at ATMS will also be affected to great extent, a senior officer of the Bank of Ceylon said.
Hundreds of employees of these four banks participated in protest demonstrations during the lunch hour Wednesday and Thursday outside many bank branches countrywide, he revealed.
The union has also decided to resort to a token protest on April 24 at 3:45 pm if the authorities failed to settle their demands.
State bank employees are entitled to a salary hike only once in three years under a collective agreement with the management of the banks and this time they are seeking a higher increment as the banking sector made huge profits last year. |
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