The Indian Banks Association has decided to hold further talks with leaders of public sector bank unions who have given a call for four-day nation-wide strike from February 25. United Forum of Bank Unions (Maharashtra) and All-India Bank Employees Union vice-president Vishwas Utagi said that the IBA has invited them for talks on Monday in Mumbai and they have agreed to participate in the talks. The unions have threatened the strike to press wage-hike demand. This will be their fifth strike this fiscal. IBA has offered a 13 percent hike which will put a burden of 4,095 crore rupees on the banks, against the unions' demand of 19.5 percent hike which would increase the salary bill by 10,000 crore rupees per annum. The 28 public sector banks in the country have a combined employee strength of about eight lakh. Most state-run banks have been reporting huge losses or steep decline in net profit amid rising bad loans and record low credit growth.The unions are also demanding a five-day week as in other public sector undertakings and regulated banking hours against the present system of not having defined working hours for officers. However, an IBA official said that five-day week was not acceptable to the government, and regulated hours were not feasible either as the daily work has to be completed anyway. UFBU also wants that about three lakh vacancies in the sector be filled up, but it is opposed to contract hiring or outsourcing.