Bank employees’ unions across India have decided to go on a strike on January 27, 2026.
The key demand of the on-strike employees is a 5-day work week. The strike comes right after the long weekend of Republic Day 2026, which saw banks also being closed on January 25 and January 26, 2026. Should the strike proceed as planned, it will mark a third consecutive day of banks not being operational.
As per a statement by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of nine unions of officers and employees, the Chief Labour Commissioner held a conciliation meeting on the previous Wednesday and Thursday, in response to the strike notice served by the UFBU.
“Besides representatives of IBA and various Banks, representatives of DFS, the Ministry of Finance, were present. From UFBU, all our 9 unions were present. From UFBU, all our 9 unions were present. Despite detailed discussions, finally, there was no positive outcome out of the conciliation proceedings,” UFBU said in its statement. As such, the union decided to go ahead with the planned strikes.
At present, bank employees only get second and fourth Saturdays off every month, along with the Sundays. During the wage revision settlement in March 2024, between the Indian Banks’ Association and UFBU, it was decided that all Saturdays will be off, as per PTI. However, this has not yet been implemented.
The UFBU explained that since RBI, LIC, stock exchanges and government offices all have a 5-day work week, there is no reason why banks shouldn’t follow the same work model.
“It is unfortunate that the government is not responding to our genuine demand. There would be no loss of man-hours as we have agreed to work an extra 40 minutes daily from Monday to Friday,” UFBU had said earlier this month. The strike may not impact the functioning of big private sector banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
