New Delhi . Bank employee organizations have decided to go on a nationwide strike on January 27 to press for their long unheard demand of a five-day working week. If this strike happens, operations in public sector banks will be disrupted for three consecutive days. We are saying this because 25th and 26th January are already holidays. Most public sector banks have already told their customers that if there is a strike, banking services may be disrupted.
Reconciliation meeting failed
The Chief Labor Commissioner had held a conciliation meeting on Wednesday and Thursday in response to the strike notice given by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the apex body of nine organizations of officers and employees. “Apart from the IBA and representatives of various banks, representatives of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) of the Finance Ministry were also present in the meeting. On behalf of UFBU, all nine of our organizations were present. Despite detailed discussions, the conciliation proceedings did not yield any positive outcome,” UFBU said in a statement. The statement further said that therefore it has been decided to go on strike on January 27. Let us tell you that at present, apart from Sunday, bank employees get leave on the second and fourth Saturday of every month.
Consensus was made in March 2024
Declaring all Saturdays as holidays was agreed upon between the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and UFBU during the wage revision agreement in March 2024. UFBU had said earlier this month that it is unfortunate that the government is not responding to our legitimate demands. There will be no loss of working hours as we have agreed to work an additional 40 minutes a day from Monday to Friday. UFBU said that RBI, LIC, GIC, stock markets and government offices already follow a five-day working week, so there is no justification for not doing so in banks. This strike of UFBU is not expected to affect the functioning of the branches of big private sector banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.