Why are bank unions holding nationwide protest, what are their demands?

BANKING services, especially at public sector banks across the country, were affected on Friday (September 11) after the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) called a nationwide strike.

The strike call given by the UFBU, an umbrella body of seven unions representing 90 per cent of officer and employee strength, did not impact the functioning of private sector banks, news agency PTI reported.

But most branches of public sector banks were either completely or partially closed as both employees and officers observed the strike.

All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) general secretary CH Venkatachalam claimed nearly eight lakh employees, officers, and managers participated in the strike.

The UFBU decided to hold a one-day strike on September 11, and a three-day nationwide strike from September 28-30. The union warned that if their demands are not resolved, an indefinite nationwide strike will begin on October 26, 2026.

"The next strike will be on 28, 29 and 30 September, three continuous days. If it is still not solved, then from October 26 it will be a continuous indefinite strike," said All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) general secretary CH Venkatachalam.

What are the demands of bank employees?

The union called for a nationwide strike to press for the immediate implementation of a five-day workweek and the resolution of pending wage-related issues.

According to the official statement by the UFBU, the unions have raised four main demands, which include:

1. Implementing a 5-day banking week; declaration of all Saturdays as holidays

2. Withdrawal of the government's performance-linked incentive (PLI) schemes

3. Modification of the incentive scheme through bilateral talks; non-discriminatory incentive scheme to employees and officers

4. Resolution of remaining issues, including pension-related issues

Venkatachalam said the main demand is that the government should approve a five-day banking week -- as reportedly agreed upon during the 12th Bipartite Settlement signed with the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) in March 2024, but it is awaiting government notification.

The All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) said on September 9 that there were two rounds of online meetings. "There has been no concrete outcome on the five-day workweek," the union said.

Meanwhile, the UFBU said on September 8, “Today in the conciliation meeting, IBA & DFS informed us that the Govt PLI scheme has been kept in abeyance & would be discussed with the unions. For 5-day banking, there was no positive development, so the strike is on. However, the Dy CLC has again kept the conciliation meeting tmrw afternoon.”

What's the issue? Explained

Right now, two Saturdays (the second and fourth of the month) are holidays; the remaining Saturdays (first, third, and fifth) are working days. "We have agreed to extra working hours from Monday to Friday, and so we have asked for all Saturdays to be holidays," he said.

According to unions, banks agreed in principle to move to a five-day week in 2015, when the second and fourth Saturdays were declared holidays. The issue was revisited in 2020 and later formalised through a wage settlement signed on March 8, 2024.

Under this arrangement, bank employees agreed to work an additional 40 minutes every day from Monday to Friday in exchange for declaring all Saturdays as holidays, Jansatta reported.

The unions said the agreement was recommended to the finance ministry more than two years ago but is still awaiting government approval.

Many also complained that working on Saturday has been impacting employees' work-life balance.

"The most important reason is 5-day banking...ur colleagues work hard day and night. This is impacting their work-life balance...We first demanded this in 2012. In 2015, under a written agreement, we were given two Saturdays off; 24 Saturdays in a year were given as offs...," said Kushal Gupta, Delhi President of All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) and its All India Senior Vice President.

Besides this, a union said in its statement that the government has also not honoured the agreement arrived in 2020 to pay a uniform incentive based on the performance of a bank as a whole, ranging from 5 days wage to 15 days wage depending on the profits of the banks.

"The government came out with a revised discriminatory scheme which is based on individual performance and resulted in dividing the workforce," it added.