Athira Sethu
Kochi, 28 September 2026
After an agreement with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) regarding certain issues, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has postponed the planned three-day strike.
This decision was taken following the UFBU-IBA meeting held on Sunday evening. The strike was planned to commence the very next day and could have adversely affected various banking transactions including deposit, withdrawal, and cheque clearing.
One of the key demands raised by the bank unions is that of a five-day week. As per the new agreement, a high-level committee representing both IBA and UFBU will be set up. This committee will examine the feasibility of observing all Saturdays as holidays for the bank staff. It will also take into account the opinion of customers and others before arriving at a viable solution.
As far as the PLI scheme of senior bank officers of Scale IV and above is concerned, it has been agreed that the issue will be discussed and appropriate suggestions will be made by IBA to the government.
Owing to this development, UFBU has called off the proposed strike. Bank unions had threatened to go on an indefinite strike starting from October 26th if their demands were not met.
UFBU comprises of seven major bank employees’ and officers’ trade unions which are AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF and INBOC.
Bank unions have been pressing for a five-day working week for quite some time now. The unions have highlighted the fact that there are many governmental and financial organizations which follow the five-day week schedule such as Reserve Bank of India, LIC, GIC and NABARD.
The Finance Ministry had previously asked bank employees not to resort to a strike and address the issues through discussions. The Finance Ministry had told the union members that most of their demands have been taken care of, while the matter of five-day banking week is under consideration.
