Bank Employees Want A 5-Day Working Week Amid COVID-19

In a statement, the All India Bank Employees Association said that the coronavirus threat is haunting bankers. Bank employee unions have again raised their demand for a five-day working week, stating that reducing the number of working days would help bankers who are at high risk of contracting the coronavirus disease due to their exposure to the public.

The Indian Banks' Association (IBA) had in January rejected the unions' proposal for a five-day working week but offered a 19 percent pay hike to employees. At present, banks have holidays on the second and fourth Saturdays every month and on every Sunday.

The bank employees' association's statement said that since they are highly exposed to the general public dealing, a five-day week is now the requirement of the hour.

Talking to PTI, the president of All India State Bank Officers Federation, Deepak Sharma, said, "The working conditions in the Banks have been strenuous. Poor infrastructure, lack of adequate staff has made the officers work till late in the night, resulting in poor health, huge pressure on the officers, which culminates in serious work-leisure mismatches, life style diseases and of late, repeated acts of suicides being committed by the officers of the Banks."

Officers are called upon to work on holidays and Sundays, frequently disrupting the personal life, Sharma claimed.