Five-day work a week: The bank employees’ unions have constantly raised their demand for five-day working in the bank, stating to increase the number of week offs.  After repeated petitions for almost a year, now the time is probably near when banks will work only for five days a week. Apart from Sunday, there was a constant demand from the Indian Banking Association to keep it closed on Saturday as well, which has now been approved.

According to the report of The Hindu, the demand pressed by bank employees’ unions for five-day working and to declare all Saturdays as a bank holiday has been accepted by India’s Bank Association in the meeting which was held on July 28.

Now, the bank employees’ Unions body has forwarded the petition to the Finance Ministry for further approval.

If the petition would be approved by the Finance Minister then banks will be working on five days a week, and employees will get all Saturdays off. Besides, the daily working hours of all banks could be extended by 45 minutes, according to the Business Line report.

Decision awaiting

Bankers are hopeful that their proposal will soon get approval from the Finance Department. “Based on some informal conversations with the ministry, it appears that the government may not have any problem in accepting this request of the bankers’ union,” it said.

At present all banks in India work on the first, third and fifth Saturdays of the month. There are holidays on the second and fourth Saturdays. However, as of 2015, banks operate six days a week, including all Saturdays of the month.