Chennai, Jun 21 (IANS): Unions in the banking sector are gearing up for a strike on June 27 to press for early settlement of their pending issues, a top All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) leader said on Tuesday.

AIBEA General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam also said the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) declined to give a firm timeline for resolution of the issues at the conciliation meeting called by the Chief Labour Commissioner on Tuesday.

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of several bank unions, had given the strike call.

"The pending issues are like hike in conveyance allowance to physically challenged employees, uniform banking hours in branches, improvement in medical insurance and staff welfare schemes, fitment to ex-servicemen employees, improvement in pension rules as given to the central government staff, special allowance in North Eastern states and others," Venkatachalam told IANS.

He said the conciliation meeting was attended by Chief Labour Commissioner S.C. Joshi, IBA Senior Advisor Brajeshwar Sharma, and Deputy Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Kul Bhushan Nayyar.

With the IBA not giving any timeline commitment the meeting remained inconclusive. The Chief Labour Commissioner advised at holding of one more conciliation meeting on June 23.