Public Sector Bank employees from all over India are set to go on a three-day nationwide strike from September 28 to 30. This has come just two weeks after a day-long strike on September 11, in which their demand for a five-day banking week were not accepted by the government.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of bank employee and officer unions, is also mulling over an indefinite strike that will start on October 26 if the demands are still not met.
The bank unions have two main demands: implementation of a five-day banking week and withdrawal of the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. Although the government has put the PLI scheme on pause for now, there has been no communication over the five-day workweek demand. Banks are currently closed on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month. The unions want banks to remain closed on all Saturdays.
“This demand has been going on for years. In 2024, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and other bank unions agreed to increasing the working hours on weekdays in lieu for the working hours lost on Saturdays. The proposal was then sent to the government for approval but it is still pending,” YK Arora, General Secretary, National Confederation of Bank of India Staff Unions (NCBISU), told ThePrint.
In a statement issued on Monday, the government said that it had many rounds of talks with the unions and urged the employees not to go ahead with the strike. It also pointed out that the three-day strike will end on 30 September, when banks carry out their half-yearly closing.
The government said that the strike could effectively disrupt physical banking services for five days and affect customers, businesses, government transactions and international banking operations.
Not the first time
The five-days working week demand isn’t new. The last five strikes of the banks have raised this demand. In the last 18 months, the bank has gone on strike several times over recruitment, pensions and working conditions.
Before this, banks went on strike on September 11 and in January this year with the same demand. In March 2025, the bank unions were on a two-day strike over recruitment, job security, other service related issues and five-days working. This strike was called off after the talks.
In January 2024, the focus was more on manpower. Unions raised concerns over staff shortages, sought recruitment drives to fill vacancies and opposed outsourcing of regular banking jobs. In January 2023, the list of demands was broader and included a five-day week, recruitment, pension updation and restoration of the old pension system. The repeated strike calls show that while the immediate issues have changed over the years, the demand to make Saturday a holiday has remained on the table.
“There is no response to our demand for implementation of five days banking, which was agreed and signed in March 2024, under the last wage revision settlement. Hence we are going ahead with the strike action,” the UFBU said after Tuesday’s conciliation meeting which was held by the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner in New Delhi.
The issue itself dates back more than a decade. In 2015, the government declared the second and fourth Saturdays of every month as holidays for public sector banks, replacing the earlier system under which bank employees worked on Saturdays. Unions have since pushed for the remaining Saturdays to be made holidays as well.
In its latest statement, the government also listed measures it has taken for public sector bank employees, including salary and allowance revisions, higher recruitment, changes in transfer and promotion policies, pension benefits and an increase in the Staff Welfare Fund.
Public sector banks recruited around 4.82 lakh employees between 2014-15 and 2025-26, and recruitment doubled in the last three years, according to a press release issued by the Union Finance Ministry issued on Monday.
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)
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