Sushil Kumar Modi, a member of the parliamentary committee on finance, emphasized the legitimacy of public sector bankers’ request for a five-day work week. He expressed that the government should promptly consider this demand, highlighting that several state and central services already enjoy such a schedule.
Modi suggested a slight extension of daily working hours from Monday to Friday to accommodate this change. The aspiration for a five-day work week has been a longstanding appeal from Indian bank employees, who have been working on alternate Saturdays for approximately eight years.
Since 2015, bank unions have been advocating for complete weekends off. The 10th Bipartite Settlement, established in 2015, marked second and fourth Saturdays as holidays in collaboration with RBI and the government through the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).
Although the topic of a five-day work week was broached during the 11th Bipartite Settlement negotiations, a resolution was not reached. The bipartite agreement governs salary discussions between IBA and bank unions every five years.