Bank staff demand 5-day work week nationwide:Employees announce strike on 27th gather at Arera Hills Bhopal protest by flashing mobile phone torches

Bank employees across the country have announced a strike to demand a five-day work week in banks. A one-day nationwide strike will be held on January 27. If the government does not accept the demand, bank unions have warned of an indefinite strike. As part of this protest, bank employees in Bhopal gathered at Arera Hills on Thursday evening. They protested peacefully by lighting the torch of their mobile phones. The protest was held after the United Forum of Bank Unions gave a call for a nationwide demonstration. On the call of the Forum’s Bhopal unit, hundreds of bank employees and officers assembled at around 5:30 pm in front of Punjab National Bank at Indira Press Complex. They raised slogans, held a meeting, and expressed their anger over the delay in approving a five-day banking week. Leaders of various bank unions, including K.K. Sharma, Subin Sinha, Praveen Meghani, Nazir Qureshi, Dinesh Jha, Vishal Jain, Sanjay Kudeshia, V.S. Negi and Sunil Singh, addressed the gathering. Union leaders said the January 27 strike will see participation from about 8 lakh employees and officers from public sector banks, private banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks. They demanded that the central government immediately approve a five-day work week and declare all Saturdays as holidays, instead of only the second and fourth Saturdays. Long-standing demand
The United Forum of Bank Unions has long been demanding the implementation of 5 working days a week in the banking sector. In the 10th Bipartite Settlement/7th Joint Note of 2015, an agreement was reached by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the central government. According to this, the second and fourth Saturdays of every month were declared holidays, and other Saturdays were made full working days instead of half-days. At that time, it was also assured that the demand to declare all remaining Saturdays as holidays would be considered at an appropriate time, but this issue remained pending. In 2022, the central government and the Indian Banks’ Association agreed to discuss this matter with the United Forum of Bank Unions, so that by increasing working hours, the remaining Saturdays could be declared holidays. After discussions in 2023, it was agreed that working hours from Monday to Friday would be increased by 40 minutes daily and the remaining Saturdays would be declared holidays. This proposal was duly sent to the government, but unfortunately, government approval has been pending for the past two years. Upon receiving no response from the government, the United Forum of Bank Unions had called for a two-day strike on March 24 and 25, 2025. At that time, the government stated that the matter was under active consideration, due to which the strike was postponed. Despite this strong assurance, approval has not yet been granted.