Bank staff hold rallies in Karimnagar, Adilabad for five-day week, PLI

Bank officers and employees from nine banks staged rallies in Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts as part of a nationwide protest called by the United Forum of Bank Unions. They pressed for immediate implementation of a five-day workweek and extension of performance-linked incentives, citing stress and workload.

Adilabad: As part of a nationwide protest called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), officers and employees from nine different banks took out rallies, pressing for immediate implementation of five-day workweek and to extend performance linked incentives across erstwhile Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nizamabad districts on Friday.

Kokkula Srinivas, secretary of SBISUHC SBI (Staff union Hyderabad Circle) Mancherial region, recalled that the union government agreed to introduce the system during consultations held with the Indian Banks Association in March 2024. He regretted that the government had not implemented it so far, disappointing the employees.

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Srinivas reasoned that the employees were undergoing severe mental and physical stress due to digitalization, workload, and pressure of targets and staff crunch and they immediately deserved the five-day workweek. He cited that the workweek system was already introduced by RBI, SEBI, LIC, NABARD and IRDA.

Leaders of the bank unions opined that the inordinate delay in implementation of the workweek system was causing injustice to the employees. They wanted the union government to honor the assurances made at the time of the consultations. They also urged it to extend performance-linked incentives to all the staffers of the banks. They criticized it for discriminating against lower-rank officials.