C H Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association and Convenor of the United Forum of Bank Unions, will inaugurate the conference. Arun Kumar, a leading economist, will be the chief guest.

The conference is being held in the backdrop of bank employees recently concluding their struggle under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions.

They have managed to ‘force’ the IBA and the government to set up a time frame for resolving their issues i e providing one more round of option to join the pension scheme. Appointment on compassionate grounds for the dependents of the deceased, filling up of all vacancies in the banking industry, pension to all employees joined in between November 1993 and September 1995.

The conference will have further discussions and finalise the intensifying of its campaign against issues like outsourcing of permanent jobs, attacks on the banking industry to hand over public sector banks to the foreign players, merger of public sector banks to make them global banks, and the decision of the government to remove ceiling on voting rights in banks.