Bank employees unions have joined the two-day Bharat Bandh and the move is likely to disrupt banking services across the country over the two day period starting today i.e. January 8. Several state-run bank branches may be closed today as employees union plan to gather to protest against a number of issues facing the banking industry. So, with the bank strike call, this week banks will function for only 3 days i.e. Monday, Thursday and Friday as second Saturday is again a weekly holiday for banks.

Two of the bank employee unions namely All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) have asked all their members to join the strike. But as other unions have not favoured the bank strike this time, some of the bank branches will function as usual.

As per Siddhartha Khan of National Confederation of Bank Employees', other than private banks and SBI, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of India will remain fully-functional and some other banks may see partial disruption. Also, bank employees linked to the protesting unions may be the only ones to go on protest while corporate offices of different banks are expected to remain open.

This happens to be the fourth bank strike call following bank strike of December 21 and December 26 that demanded improved pay hike for bank employees and cancellation of proposed merger of Dena and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda.

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