Bank employees unions have called off one-day strike on September 25.

According to the unions--– All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) --  the strike was called off after a two-day conciliation meeting with Bank employees union, Indian Banking Association (IBA), representatives of SBI (Dy. Managing Director), the finance ministry (Director, DFS) and chief labour commissioner.

“In the meeting, the government representative clarified that they had not received any proposal for merger of public sector Banks or merger of any Associate Bank with SBI. The IBA stated that it had no jurisdiction on the matter as it was a policy issue. The SBI clarified that no decision had been taken at present for closure or merger of Associate Banks,” said AIBEA in its statement after the outcome of the meeting.

The unions had called for strike last month.

In the run up to the stike they had been preparing a series of events - writing to IBA, SBI, RBI and ministry of finance, celebrating anti-merger day on September 5 and demonstrations at different banks.

According to the AIBEA, the IBA assured that the service conditions of employees of Associate Banks would be governed by the bipartite settlement. “There will be no unilateral imposition of any service conditions,” the AIBEA said.

The unions also conveyed their displeasure to the government representatives on proposed banking reforms. “We also submitted why licences should not be given to corporate houses to start their own Banks,”  the AIBEA said.