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The people’s newsroom

PolicyDisinvestment

IDBI Bank staff call two-day nationwide hunger strike against sale to Fairfax

The United Forum of IDBI Officers and Employees has served a strike notice on the bank's management for 2 and 3 November, days after the Cabinet cleared the transfer of control to the Canadian group.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
An IDBI Bank building (file photo)
An IDBI Bank building (file photo)Photo: devx / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Key points

  1. IDBI Bank employees will hold a two-day nationwide hunger strike on 2 and 3 November.
  2. The union forum has served a formal notice under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.
  3. The protest targets the sale of 60.72% of the bank by the government and LIC to a Fairfax unit.

Employees of IDBI Bank will go on a two-day nationwide hunger strike on 2 and 3 November to oppose the sale of the lender to Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings, their union forum announced on Monday.

The United Forum of IDBI Officers and Employees (UFIOE), which brings together the two associations representing the bank’s officers and staff, said it had served a formal strike notice on the management under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. The code requires notice before workers in an establishment can strike.

The agitation is aimed at the proposed transfer of management control to the Fairfax group, and at the dilution of the stakes held by the Union government and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

The deal they oppose

The Union Cabinet on 14 October cleared the strategic sale of 60.72% of IDBI Bank to 10955230 Canada Inc, a Fairfax company, at ₹81 a share, for about ₹52,878 crore. The government has called it the largest foreign investment so far in India’s financial sector.

Unions and some former officials have argued that the Centre promised Parliament in 2003, when IDBI was converted into a bank, that it would keep a majority stake. The finance ministry said last week that the promise never made it into the law and pointed to a 2018 Delhi High Court ruling that statements in the House cannot override a statute.

What comes next

The bank’s management has not responded publicly to the strike notice. The forum has not said how many employees are expected to take part, or whether it plans further action if the sale goes ahead.

The protest adds pressure on a deal the government has presented as a landmark in its disinvestment programme, and comes as the finance ministry defends the sale against the charge that it breaks an old promise to Parliament.

The documents