Major Relief for Bank Staff: All Saturdays and Sundays Could Become Holidays
Banks may adopt a 5-day workweek from 2026. Employees could enjoy full weekends while services continue smoothly. Learn about the upcoming changes.
image for illustrative purpose
Bank employees who have been used to heavy workloads and long working days will probably be able to enjoy a pretty big rest very soon. By the year 2026, the working week could be reduced to five days for banks and this would be an enormous relief for the staff already under severe pressure.
While digital banking was widely adopted, bank employees still had Their ups and downs. The ramp-up in online services did not lighten the load and in fact, the workers were reporting increased pressure along with longer hours. Banks have been used to a six-day working week in the past, where initially all Saturdays and Sundays were working days, and later, only the second and fourth Saturdays were given as holidays. This situation did give some relief but the problem about workload still existed.
The bank unions have been constantly mentioning the need for a five-day working week for the whole of the banking sector and that all Saturdays should be declared holidays. The Ministry of Finance had an answer on 28 July when it said that the government was looking into the possibility of changing the working hours of the banks.
As per the proposal of the banks' association, there would be Monday to Friday banks and no Saturdays and Sundays. Proponents of the change say that it is a way of relieving the employees without any impact on the customers. The experts stamp it that the two-day week offs would not interfere with the banking activities at all.
Banking is still done according to the schedule that was set in August 2015, whereby only the second and fourth Saturdays are holidays while the bank remains open on all other Saturdays. In the new arrangement, every Saturday would be a holiday meaning that banking would be done according to corporate workweeks.
The banking industry and labor unions still keep a positive attitude about the transition. Moreover, employees are expecting the new timetable to come into effect in 2026, which would probably be a landmark in reducing the workload and enhancing the work-life balance, while an official announcement is yet to be made.
