JAMMU: Bank officers and employees staged a demonstration in Jammu on Thursday as the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) announced a three-day nationwide strike from September 28 to 30, followed by an indefinite strike from October 26, 2026, over the demand for a five-day working week in the banking sector.
According to the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), the strike will involve around eight lakh bank employees and officers from public sector and private banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks across the country. Leaders of the seven UFBU-affiliated unions addressed the gathering and outlined their demands.
AIBOC J&K and Ladakh Secretary Rajesh Mehta said the unions were seeking government approval to declare all Saturdays as holidays, with working hours from Monday to Friday increased accordingly. He said the proposal had been recommended by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) following understandings reached between the IBA and UFBU in December 2023 and reflected in the settlement/joint note of March 2024.
Mehta said the proposal had remained pending for nearly two years despite the government earlier indicating that the matter was under active consideration. He said the unions had subsequently undertaken several protest programmes before announcing the September strike and the proposed indefinite action from October 26.
UFBU leaders said the demand followed earlier agreements under which the second and fourth Saturdays were declared holidays, while discussions in 2022 and 2023 reportedly envisaged increasing daily working hours from Monday to Friday by 40 minutes to facilitate holidays on the remaining Saturdays. The unions also pointed to the availability of alternative banking channels and urged customers to bear with any inconvenience caused during the strike.
