Bank employees want five-day week working pattern

Even as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made it clear that it has not issued any direction with regard to a five-day a week working for commercial banks, the employees and officers in the public sectors banks said they deserve the working pattern. Highlighting the changed functioning in the country’s commercial banks, they say the staff members are discharging their duties in a stressful environment. Devidas Tuljapurkar, Joint Secretary of All India Bank Employees’ Association, said that the five-day a week working for commercial banks is a long pending demand of almost all the unions of bank employees and officers. Tuljapurkar said that as the technology has increased number of the banking transactions in a day, the working of the banks has become ‘intense’.

“The staff members are expected to be alert and on their toes for longer period. They have been pushing their limits every day. And such conditions are causing negative impact on their physical and mentle health,” he said adding that five-day a week working would resolve the issues. “The proposal is pending with the policy makers for quite some time. However, it is the high time for them to take a call on the matter and give respite to those who are working in banks,” he said.

Justifying the demand, Tuljapurkar said technological advancements in the banking sector have already paved a way for the five-day a week working pattern. “Today, we have options like net banking, automated teller machine (ATM) counters, online payment facilities and so on for the customers to do transactions even if the bank remains closed for two days in a week,” he said. In rural areas, the bank employees may avail holidays taking into consideration the weekly markets in the respective areas, he added. An officer in one of the public sector banks, on a condition of anonymity, said that working hours in the banks have become very difficult. “Bank employees and officers are working like machines.

They have to deal with the customers, meet the targets and make loan recovery,” he said. There were some reports in media saying that the public sector banks in the country have adopted five days a week working. However, the Reserve Bank of India recently clarified that it has not issued any direction with regard to a five-day a week working for commercial banks.

“It has been reported in certain sections of the media that commercial banks would have a 5-day week in terms of Reserve Bank of India instructions. It is clarified that this information is not factually correct,” the Reserve Bank of India clarified through a communique. It is important to note that commercial banks in the country observe holiday only on second and fourth Saturday of a month apart from Sunday.