Banks employee unions have called for a nationwide strike on January 27 to press for their longstanding demand for a five-day work week. If the strike proceeds, banks will be closed for four days on trot. This includes January 24 (on account of fourth Saturday), 25 (Sunday) and 26 (Republic Day).
As many as 8,00,000 employees will go on the one-day nationwide strike, the unions said, as quoted by the Business Standard. The strike will include workers from state-owned, private, foreign, regional rural and cooperative banks. The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), which is a group of nine organisations for bank employees and officers, called for the action. This group includes the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC).
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The strike notice, which was submitted to the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), Chief Labour Commissioner and the DFS, indicates that the UFBU will be undertaking a national work stoppage from January 26 midnight to January 27 at 11:59 pm.
The demands
The AIBOC stated in a press release that unions were holding the strike since the government was delaying approval for declaring all Saturdays as bank holidays. "The recommendation of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) for a five-day work week has been pending with the government for the past two years," the forum said.
According to the unions, the proposal is part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed between the UFBU and IBA on December 7, 2023, and re-affirmed in the settlement and joint note on March 8, 2024.
The proposal provides for an increase of 40 minutes per day (Monday to Friday) as additional work hours, but all Saturdays shall be declared as holidays.
Earlier this month, the UFBU had said, "It is unfortunate that the government is not responding to our genuine demand. There would be no loss of man-hours as we have agreed to work an extra 40 minutes daily from Monday to Friday."
The UFBU stated that they were given assurance by the government and IBA at the 10th bipartite settlement and 7th joint note in 2015 when they agreed that the second and fourth Saturday would be a holiday and they would look into the remaining Saturday later on. However, the forum pointed out these promises were yet to see the light of the day.
Banks inform customers
Several public sector banks have already informed their customers about the disruption.
In a post on X, the State Bank of India advised its customers to prefer Internet banking, UPI and other digital channels while also apologising for the inconvenience.
— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) January 23, 2026
'No positive outcome'
In response to the strike notice, the Chief Labour Commissioner held a conciliation meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, UFBU said in a statement.
"Besides representatives of IBA and various Banks, representatives of DFS, the Ministry of Finance, were present. From UFBU, all our 9 unions were present. Despite detailed discussions, finally there was no positive outcome out of the conciliation proceedings," it said.
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Hence it has been decided to go ahead with the strike on January 27, it added.
Who is taking part in strike?
According to a Business Standard report, the other organisations taking part in the strike are All India Bank Employees Association, National Confederation of Bank Employees, All India Bank Officers’ Association, Bank Employees Federation of India, Indian National Bank Employees Federation, Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress, National Organisation of Bank Workers and National Organisation of Bank Officers.
