PSU Banks to follow five-day work week

- Currently, 2nd & 4th Saturdays holidays

- New holiday norm will apply to all PSBs, old generation pvt banks, foreign banks

Mumbai: Soon, falling in line with state-run insurance behemoth LIC and all the State-run general insurers, public-sector banks (PSBs) will also be working for five days a week. It simply means that like Sundays, all Saturdays will also be non-working days for the bank employees soon. Banks’ body, Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has agreed for 5-day banking in the meeting which was held here on February 28 with United Forum of Banks’ Unions (UFBU), the umbrella organisation of all the bank employees’ unions. The same will be implemented very soon. While agreeing for five-day banking, IBA has increased the banking hours by 40 minutes daily. So, now on, the bank branches will open at 9.50AM and close at 5.30 PM. Thus, the cash hours for the bank branches will be between 10 AM and 4 pm. A detailed circular in this connection will be published shortly.

Confirming the development, a senior official of IBA told Bizz Buzz that the decision has been taken in conformity with LIC and other state-run general insurers. And in an era when most of the banking transactions were happening in a digital mode, it was quite possible, he added. It is known that for the past few years, banks have been given holidays on the second Saturday and fourth Saturday. In this situation, the bank employees have been demanding five-day working week. It is worth noting that the central government was considering this request. Recently, the bank employees and the central government had a discussion on this, and in this discussion, it is said that there was a demand to declare Saturdays as public holidays. But at the same time, it was also discussed that there will be a change in the working hours from Monday to Friday and there are plans to increase the working hours by about 40 minutes every day. Anannouncement is expected soon on plans to increase the current working hours from Monday to Friday by 40 minutes.

The Saturday holiday norm is said to apply to all public sector banks and old generation private sector banks and even foreign banks that have their branches in India. The news that all Saturdays will be a public holiday for banks will soon be announced has brought cheers among the bank employees.