The United Forum of Bank Unions has confirmed a nationwide strike by public sector bank employees on January 27, 2026, to demand a five-day work week. Despite conciliation meetings with the Indian Banks’ Association, Ministry of Finance, and bank representatives, no resolution was reached. The strike, combined with January 25-26 holidays, will disrupt public sector banking services for three days.
Bank employee unions have decided to go on a nationwide strike on January 27 to press for a long-pending demand for a five-day work week. If the strike proceeds, it will disrupt public sector banking operations for three consecutive days, with January 25 and 26 being holidays. Most of the public sector banks have already informed their customers about the disruption in banking services if the strike materialises.
In response to the strike notice served by the UFBU, the Chief Labour Commissioner held a conciliation meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of nine unions of officers and employees, said in a statement.
“Besides representatives of IBA and various Banks, representatives of DFS, the Ministry of Finance, were present. From UFBU, all our 9 unions were present. Despite detailed discussions, finally there was no positive outcome out of the conciliation proceedings,” it said. Hence it has been decided to go ahead with the strike on January 27, it added.
Currently, bank employees get the second and fourth Saturdays off each month, apart from Sundays. The decision to declare all Saturdays as holidays was agreed between the Indian Banks’ Association and UFBU during the wage revision settlement in March 2024. “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.
