IBA Forms Committee to Examine Five-Day Banking Week as Unions Press for Saturday Holidays

On 29 September, the Indian Banks' Association set up a high-level committee to look at a demand that bank employees have pressed for years: making every Saturday a holiday. The move came after the United Forum of Bank Unions put off a three-day nationwide bank strike that had been scheduled for 28 to 30 September, following talks with the IBA.

The committee is chaired by Rajneesh Karnatak, managing director and chief executive of Bank of India. Ashok Chandra, managing director and CEO of Punjab National Bank, is the alternate chairman. Senior bankers and representatives of bank unions also sit on it. Its brief is to examine different ways of putting a five-day week into practice, including options other than simply lengthening the working day. It is also to consult stakeholders, customers among them, and work toward an arrangement all sides can accept.

The committee's formation is not an approval. Any final change would need a government notification and the necessary regulatory clearances. For now, the present arrangement stays in force.

That arrangement is a partial six-day week. The second and fourth Saturdays of each month are holidays, while the first, third and, where one falls, fifth Saturdays are working days. Sundays are holidays. The system began on 1 September 2015, when the government notified the second and fourth Saturdays as public holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act, following an agreement between the IBA and the employees' unions.

The current demand has a paper trail. It was part of a December 2023 understanding between the IBA and the UFBU, and was later written into the 12th bipartite settlement and ninth joint note, signed on 8 March 2024. Implementation was made conditional on government approval and clearances from the Reserve Bank of India.

The unions' case rests on workload. They say employees face heavier demands from greater digitisation, business targets, regulatory requirements and staff shortages, and that a five-day week would improve work-life balance and align bank staff with the schedules of several other institutions. They also argue that digital banking has cut customers' reliance on branches for routine transactions, since internet banking, mobile banking, ATMs and digital payment systems work outside normal branch hours.

Branches still matter, though, particularly for cash transactions, documentation and other assisted services, and especially for customers who do not use digital channels. That tension is what the committee has to resolve.

Abroad, a Monday-to-Friday week is broadly the standard for core banking in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and much of Europe. That does not mean branches are shut on Saturdays: some retail branches, especially in shopping centres or busy areas, open for limited hours. Japan's major branches close on both weekend days. Pakistan has a Saturday-Sunday weekend with banks generally closed. China has a five-day week for most government and white-collar work, but banks commonly keep weekend branch operations for retail customers. Singapore has a five-day clearing week, though some branches serve customers on Saturdays, and Malaysia and the Philippines broadly follow a Monday-to-Friday core week, with some mall branches open on Saturdays.

The lesson from those examples is that a five-day core week can coexist with limited weekend service at individual branches. For Indian banks, then, the question is not just converting Saturdays into holidays but how to maintain branch access, customer service and operations on a Monday-to-Friday calendar. The committee's findings, followed by any government and RBI decisions, will determine whether that happens.