5 Days Working in Bank: Bank employees have been demanding five days working in a week for a long time. If the government gives the green signal, then their demand can be fulfilled by the end of this year. An agreement has been reached on this issue between the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and employee unions.
5 Days Working in Bank: Bank employees have been demanding five days working in a week for a long time. If the government gives the green signal, then their demand can be fulfilled by the end of this year. An agreement has been reached on this issue between the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and the employee unions. Now only the approval of the government is awaited, which is expected by December 2024. If this approval is received, then bank employees will work only five days a week and will get Saturday and Sunday off.
Waiting for government approval
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has already been signed between IBA and bank unions regarding this decision. Both public and private banks were included in this agreement in December 2023. After this, a joint note was also signed between IBA and All India Bank Officers Confederation on 8 March 2024, which laid down the outline of 5 days working and weekend leave. However, this change depends on the approval of the government.
RBI’s role is also important
This proposal will also go for discussion with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), because RBI controls the banking hours and internal functioning of banks. The government has not set any time limit for approval on this proposal, but it is expected that its notification may come by the end of the year.
Working hours may increase
According to reports, if the government approves 5-day working, then the daily working hours of banks can be increased by 40 minutes. With this, bank branches will remain open from 9:45 am to 5:30 pm. Currently banks are closed only on second and fourth Saturdays.
New time of opening of bank – 9:45 am
New time of closing of bank – till 5:30 pm
Bank’s working rules will change
Some bank employees believe that they expect a notification from the government on this proposal by the end of 2024 or early 2025. Once approved by the government, Saturday will be recognized as a holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act. This will mean that banks will be closed on both Saturday and Sunday every week.
The demand was going on for a long time
Bank unions have been demanding holiday every Saturday and Sunday since 2015. Under the 10th bilateral agreement in 2015, the RBI and the government along with the IBA recognized the second and fourth Saturdays as holidays. Now, if this proposal is approved, bank employees will work only 5 days a week and will be able to rest on weekends.
