Banks may soon consider 5-day workweek as unions present proposals to authorities: report

Bank employees may have to change their work schedule. Media reports said banks may consider changing their working days as discussions on the matter are ongoing between the government and bank employee unions.

According to a report by Dainik Jagran English, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and unions have reached an agreement on this issue. The proposal now remains awaiting approval from the central government.

If the proposal is approved by the government, it would mean banks would only stay open five days a week, Monday to Friday. This would mean full weekend holidays for bank employees on Saturday and Sunday.

Currently, banks remain open for six days, from Monday to Saturday, except the second and fourth Saturdays which are observed as holidays by banks across the country.

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However, this change in schedule will not have an impact on the overall working hours of bank employees. In addition to reducing the number of working days in the week, the proposal also suggests increasing the number of daily working hours for bank employees. He recommends increasing the total time by 4 hours per minute per day. This means banks will remain open every day from 9:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. if the proposal is approved.

This implementation of the policy is entirely dependent on the permission of the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Government. The central bank controls all banking operations in the country.

However, so far the RBI has not given clarity on its stand on the issue.

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