Approximately 8 lakh bank employees and officers nationwide participated in the nationwide bank strike organized by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) on January 27, 2026, according to a news release from the bank unions.
The strike was seen in public sector banks, private sector banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks, and cooperative banks, according to the UFBU, an umbrella organization of nine unions that represent bank officials and employees.
The forum described the strike as a "total success," stating that it had a significant negative impact on regular banking operations across the country.The strike was called to press for the long-pending demand for a five-day work week in the banking industry, including declaring all Saturdays as bank holidays. At present, only the second and fourth Saturdays of every month are bank holidays.
"The government has refused to approve the implementation of the five-day banking week despite repeated assurances and formal agreements, so we were forced to go on strike," UFBU stated in a statement. The unions cited a memorandum of agreement signed with UFBU on December 7, 2023, and the subsequent settlement and joint note dated March 8, 2024, as the basis for the Indian Banks' Association's (IBA) recommendation of a five-day workweek. In order to make up for Saturdays being designated as holidays, everyday working hours from Monday through Friday were to be extended by forty minutes.
According to UFBU, the demand for a five-day work week has been pending since 2015, when the IBA and the government agreed to declare the second and fourth Saturdays as holidays, with an assurance that the remaining Saturdays would be reviewed later. However, the matter has remained unresolved despite further discussions in 2022 and a formal recommendation made in 2023.
The forum also noted that similar work-week patterns are already in place in institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, and General Insurance Corporation, besides central and state government offices. Stock exchanges and money markets also function only from Monday to Friday.
Conciliation meetings were held by the Chief Labour Commissioner on January 22 and 23, 2026, in New Delhi, with officials from the finance ministry participating. However, UFBU said the meetings did not yield any positive outcome, prompting the unions to go ahead with the strike.
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