Bank employees' organizations have called for a bank strike across India in January. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UBFU) has called for a nationwide bank strike on January 27. This strike has been called demanding a five-day work week and two-day weekend.
The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC) had issued a notice on January 4. It claimed that despite long-standing demands, the government has not taken any steps. That is why the strike has been called. The allegation is that the demands which received green signals during the wage revision settlement between the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and bank unions in March 2024 are not being acted upon by the government.
What demands have been made?
Bank unions want banks to work five days a week from now on. Saturday and Sunday should be holidays. Several financial institutions and government organizations already follow this five-day work schedule, and they have demanded that banks also follow this. Currently, bank employees get holidays on Sundays and second and fourth Saturdays. The unions allege that there was an understanding that all Saturdays would be holidays. But that decision is not being implemented.
UBFU claims that bank employees have agreed to work an additional 40 minutes each day from Monday to Friday so that total working hours are not lost. The question has been raised why other banks will not follow the five-day work week when it is followed at RBI, LIC, GIC, stock market and several other places.
Fear of inconvenience:
If bank operations are disrupted due to the bank strike on January 27, the people of West Bengal will face extreme inconvenience. Because January 23, Friday is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary, banks will be closed in the state that day. Then January 24 is the fourth Saturday of the month, so banks will be closed that day. January 25 is Sunday, so banks will be closed that day too. January 26 is Republic Day. There is a holiday across the country that day, meaning banks will also be closed. So banks will be closed for four consecutive days anyway. If work does not happen on January 27 as well, banks will remain closed for a total of five days at the end of the month.
