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If you do business with public sector banks or rely on banking services regularly brace yourself for some inconvenience later this month. Banks are likely to remain shut for up to four days January 24-27 following an industry-wide strike called by bank unions demanding the implementation of a five-day work week in banks. The bank employees’ unions under the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) are all set to strike on January 27 2022 in order to urge the Central Government and banking regulators to introduce a full-fledged five-day work week in banks. What is four-day bank strike? The strike called by the bank unions will be held on January 27. However it may effectively result in banks remaining shut for four days. January 24 is the fourth Saturday when banks are generally closed January 25 is a Sunday holiday and January 26 is Republic Day - a gazetted holiday. Adding the January 27 strike to the weekend and holiday bank unions may keep offices closed for four days. While banking services are likely to be hit across the country during the four-day period the impact will be more pronounced in government and public sector banks where a majority of bank employees are members of the UFBU. Why are bank employees’ unions striking? Bank unions want government and public sector banks to introduce a full five-day work week. Bank unions have been repeatedly asking for banks to switch to a regular Monday-Friday work schedule like many other sectors including the RBI financial institutions etc. Currently bank employees get Saturday off only on alternate weeks giving them a long weekend every other week. The union employees claim that they have been negotiating this issue with Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) officials since March 2024 and that the central Government had given an agreed upon acceptance noted (AAN) for the same - meaning they had agreed in principle. However the Government of India is yet to give its final approval and employees are upset. “Unless banks adopt a full-fledged Weekday work schedule Bank Employees will be constrained to declare a countrywide Strike” the UFBU added in its statement. It should be noted that banks employees claim they are willing to put in more hours during the weekdays to compensate for Saturday being abolished as a holiday. Also as most services are available digitally 24×7 banks say this won’t hamper productivity. Bank unions have given calls for strikes/protests/days of rage before On Wednesday (January 18) Bank unions again took to the street in Hyderabad demanding a five-day work week. UFBU leaders later stated that talks with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) have failed and authorities have not made any concrete moves toward clearing the backlog workloads with the five-day work week. In Lucknow too bank employees hit the streets on Wednesday to demand quicker loans and other reforms including clearing the backlog cases within 30 days.