Bank staff strike work in Kerala

Banking services were hit in Kerala today as employees struck work protesting the proposed merger of the Lord Krishna Bank (LKB) with the Centurion Bank of Punjab.

The one-day state-wide strike was called by the Kerala unit of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of nine banking sector unions.

The strike affected the functioning of public sector and scheduled banks while the new generation banks were functioning normally, officials said.

Union leaders claimed that the response to the strike call was spontaneous and overwhelming.

The employees took out marches across the state demanding that the Centre give up the merger move to avoid adversely affecting the interests of depositors and employees of LKB in particular and the social banking cause in general.

The annual general meeting of LKB had yesterday adopted a resolution seeking RBI clearance for the merger proposal