IDBI employees call two-day hunger strike, allege management threats

• IDBI bank officers and employees demand suspension of sale to Canadian firm Fairfax and point out that the public sector bank is strong and has earned Rs 30,000 crore profit after tax during the last five years

• The employees have given a call for a two-day strike on 2-3 November, complaining that they were not taken into confidence before the cabinet approval of selling 60 per cent stakes to a foreign company and they received no response to their letters addressed to the prime minister and finance minister

• The conciliation meeting with the management, which was fixed for Sunday, 1 November, has been deferred to 10 November, they alleged and complained of being threatened to withdraw the agitation

The officers’ and employees’ associations of IDBI Bank have formally informed the conciliation officer that employees were allegedly threatened with strict and immediate punitive action through phone and video calls on Saturday, 31 October, if they participated in the proposed relay hunger strike on 2 and 3 November.

The strike has been called to protest against the proposed strategic sale of the bank to Canadian company Fairfax. The associations also informed the conciliation officer that audio and video recordings of the calls had been preserved as evidence.

IDBI Bank, established in 1964, has around 20,000 employees, including 900 persons with disabilities. Nearly half of its workforce belongs to reserved categories, claimed Saurav Kumar, president of the All India IDBI Bank Officers' Association (AIIBIOA).

Employees have been anxious since the Cabinet approved the bank's proposed sale to Canada's Fairfax on 14 October 2026. They fear an uncertain future, disruptions to employment and changes in future recruitment policies under foreign ownership.

They are also concerned about the possible loss of social security benefits, reservation provisions and changes in existing service conditions, Kumar told the media.

Claiming that ‘per employee profit’ and ‘per branch profit’ of the IDBI Bank is among the highest in the industry, Kumar questioned the logic behind the decision to sell the profitable bank.

The employees have three basic demands, he added. Stop privatisation of the bank; stop the sale to a private entity and, finally, if the stakes are to be sold, provide the option of merger with an existing PSU bank. Neither the government nor the bank management have responded to the demands; and they have received no response to letters addressed to the PM, FM and even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. There were no consultation with the stakeholders, no talks or any attempt to explain the rationale.

IDBI employees point out that although the Canadian company is a diversified group and operates globally, it has invested in banks only in India. Even in Canada, where Fairfax was founded in 1987, the company is known as an insurance and finance company. It has no experience of banking elsewhere and the only other bank in India, the CSB Bank in which it has a stake, is much smaller than IDBI Bank. The employees also question why other private sector banks or even multinational banks with branches in India have shown no interest in buying stakes in IDBI bank.

There is widespread speculation in banking circles that the strategic sale to Fairfax is designed to allow a back door entry into banking to an industrial house. The Reserve Bank of India rules no not permit industrial groups to own banks in order to prevent them from raising cheap financing for themselves. The sale of IDBI Bank to Fairfax, which has no known or real interest or experience in banking, they apprehend, is designed to allow crony capitalists to run the show.

C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), reiterated the organisation's opposition to bank privatisation and extended support to the movement to save IDBI Bank.

Addressing a national convention of IDBI Bank employees at the Constitution Club, he said bank employees had gone on strike as many as 55 times over the past 35 years, preventing the government from privatising public sector banks.

He reminded IDBI officers and employees that they had often chosen to remain aloof from political actions initiated by central trade unions, maintaining that bank employees should restrict their agitations to issues concerning their own service conditions, such as transfers and promotions.

Recalling the nationwide bank strike in February this year, he said crores of bank employees had participated, while IDBI employees had chosen to stay away.

Arguing that remaining aloof was no longer an option, he questioned whether bank employees could afford to stay away when farmers, students and workers from other sectors were protesting against privatisation and government policies. "When others are opposing the privatisation of public sector undertakings, is it wise for us to remain indifferent and focus only on our own service conditions?" he asked.