Bank employees have called for a strike on October 22 tooppose the government's decision to merge 10 state-run banks into four. The twounions of bank employees -- All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) andBank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) have jointly called for the strike.

The employees will be protesting against the merger ofPunjab National Bank with United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce,Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank and AndhraBank with Corporation Bank and Union Bank of India.

State-run banks including Bank of Maharashtra, Oriental Bankof Commerce, Syndicate Bank and Bank of Baroda have warned their operations maybe impacted due to the call of strike as per regulatory filings.

"AIBEA and BEFI have called for an all India strike ofits members on October 22, in support of their demands. In the event the strikematerializes, the normal functioning of the bank may get affected,"Oriental Bank of Commerce said in the regulatory filing on Saturday.

Earlier, Bank of Baroda said that the operations of itsbranches/officer may be "affected/paralyzed" due to proposed strike.

In a joint statement the memebers of the twi unions stated,"We can easily understand that mergers are a prelude to privatisation ofbanks and hence we need to vehemently oppose such moves."

In August, the government announced plans to merge state-runbanks in a bid to strengthen the country's financial sector, a move which it saidwould bring down the number of public sector banks  (PSBs) in the system to 12 from 27.