Bankers' unions demand a 5-day work week, announce all-India strike on January 27

Bankers' unions are planning a nationwide strike on January 27 to demand the introduction of a 5-day work week by declaring all Saturdays as holidays. Currently, banks across India remain open on the first and third Saturdays of every month. 

“We congratulate all our unions and members all over the country for their enthusiastic response to our agitational programme demanding introduction of 5 Days Banking and declaring the remaining two Saturdays as holidays as agreed between IBA and UFBU and as committed in our wage revision Settlement in March, 2024,” the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) said in a circular dated January 4, 2026. 

The circular highlighted that the demands of bank employees for a 5-day work week are genuine, as state and central government employees, along with RBI, GIC and LIC employees, already work for 5 days a week. Further, it said that this wouldn’t affect the manhours as they have already agreed to work an extra 40 minutes per day from Monday to Friday. 

“There would be no loss of manhours because we have agreed to an extra 40 minutes working per day from Monday to Friday. Already, RBI, LIC, GIC, etc., are working 5 days a week. Foreign exchange markets, money markets, stock exchanges, etc., are not working on Saturdays. Central and State Government offices are not working on Saturdays. Hence, there is no reason why banks cannot introduce 5-day banking,” the circular read. 

Will banks remain shut on January 27?

No, banks in India will remain open on Tuesday, January 27. However, due to the strike, banking services may be disrupted, as many employees will be participating in the protest. 

Twitter campaign

Banker unions have successfully run demonstrations across the country to push their 5-day work week demand. After a badge-wearing demonstration, bankers ran a #5DayBankingNow campaign on the social media platform X.

The AIBOC said that the campaign was ‘superhit’ as #5DayBankingNow had 18,80,027 impressions with over 3,00,000 tweets/posts.

March settlement

In the circular, AIBOC said that the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) signed an agreement in March 2024, agreeing to declare the remaining two Saturdays as holidays. 

“...the Government is sitting tight on the recommendations of IBA for the introduction of 5-day banking, which was agreed in the bipartite settlement in March, 2024. Hence, it has been decided to give the call for All India Strike in all the Banks on 27th January, 2026. March on and make the strike a success,” AIBOC said in the circular.