Bank strike talks fail: 3-day strike from Sept 28 to go ahead; customers face 5-day disruption

The three-day nationwide bank strike scheduled for September 28-30 is set to go ahead after a conciliation meeting between bank unions, the government and the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) failed to yield a positive response on the demand for a five-day working week.

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of seven employee and officer unions, said on Tuesday that it would proceed with the strike after the Department of Financial Services (DFS) and IBA appealed to it to defer the agitation.

"Strike stands - go ahead," the UFBU said in a circular issued after the conciliation meeting convened by the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner in New Delhi.

The unions said there had been no response to their demand for implementing a five-day banking week, which was agreed upon and signed as part of the March 2024 wage revision settlement.

The IBA told the meeting that the performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for Scale IV officers and above had been kept in abeyance as per government instructions and would be discussed further at the bipartite level.

On five-day banking, the IBA said the issue was under consideration by the government and appealed to the UFBU to reconsider and defer the strike in the interest of banking customers.

Representatives of the DFS also said the government was considering the demand and needed to take into account the views of various stakeholders before taking a decision.

The UFBU said it had conveyed its "strong resentment and protest" over alleged attempts by bank managements and other authorities to intimidate employees and officers, particularly Scale IV and above officers and probationary officers, against participating in the strike.

The unions said such alleged pressure amounted to an unfair labour practice and warned that attempts to prevent employees from joining the strike could be counterproductive.

The UFBU said it would consider deferring the strike if there was any "concrete and positive development" towards implementing five-day banking.

In the absence of such a development, it said, the strike would proceed on September 28, 29 and 30.

The strike comes after a one-day nationwide strike by bank employees on September 11. The unions have also given a call for an indefinite strike from October 26.

The unions are seeking declaration of all Saturdays as holidays for bank employees. The demand was part of the 12th Bipartite Settlement signed between the IBA and bank unions in March 2024 but is awaiting government notification.

Currently, banks remain open on the first, third and fifth Saturdays of a month. Under the proposed five-day banking system, operations would be restricted to Monday to Friday, with daily working hours increased by 40 minutes.

The government has already directed public sector banks to prepare for the September 28-30 strike and ensure uninterrupted essential banking services.

The DFS has asked banks to inform customers about the strike through SMS, email and social media and advise them to complete essential transactions by September 25.

Banks have also been directed to keep important branches handling government transactions operational by deploying non-striking staff, while ensuring that digital banking platforms and other critical systems remain operational.

Specific arrangements have been sought for currency chests, cheque clearing centres, data centres, disaster recovery centres, treasury operations and payment systems.

If the strike goes ahead, bank branches could remain closed for five consecutive days as September 26 is the fourth Saturday and September 27 is a Sunday. October 2 is also a public holiday, potentially limiting physical banking operations to two days over a nine-day period starting September 26.