PTI

New Delhi, Apr 10: The week-long strike by SBI employees was called off on Sunday night following a settlement, which gives higher pension to 2.10 lakh (.21 million) staff of the country's largest commercial bank.

Announcing the settlement after a marathon meeting lasting more than 10 hours between Finance Ministry, striking workers and SBI management here, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters that the employees getting up to Rs 21,040 salary will get 50 per cent of last drawn pay as pension and above that 40 per cent.

Earlier, the cut-off salary for 50 per cent pension was Rs 8,500, which has been raised to Rs 21,040. Beyond this salary, employees will get 40 per cent of their basic as pension subject to a minimum of Rs 10,520 a month.

The cut-off of Rs 21,040 will actually work out to be Rs 21,800 if personal qualification allowance of about Rs 700 is included.

Following the settlement, Chidambaram said the employees had called off their strike and would resume work from tomorrow.

Satisfied with the outcome, All India SBI Staff Federation Secretary P K Patnaik said all the pending work due to the strike would be cleared so that customers are not put to any inconvenience.

To a question, the union leader said the employees would not claim salary for the strike period.

SBI Chairman A K Purwar said losses suffered due to the strike were "enormous," but he cannot quantify them.

He said the bank would talk to the state governments, which have shifted their business from SBI to other PSU banks to get their business back.