The decision for a strike was announced by the union after talks with the state labour department failed on Tuesday night. The union is demanding revised payscale for the employees.

According to sources in the CPI-backed West Bengal Bank Employees Association, the contractual employees are deployed mainly to guard the ATMs. These guards are not being paid according to the guidelines issued by the Centre.

Kamal Bhattacharya, chairman of the union, said that the banks engage agencies to deploy guards for the ATMs. The banks pay the agencies, which in turn pay the employees. In many cases the agencies trim the bill resulting in differences between actual payments by the banks and the amount received by the employees, said a source.

“One representative from the bank should be present at the time of salary,” said Bhattacharya.

According to the central government order, an employee should get an amount of Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000. “However, we came to know that they are being paid only Rs 2,000 per month, the rest of the amount is kept by the agencies,” said a union leader.