Bank Strike Today: PSU Banks Shut Over 5-Day Work Week Demand

A countrywide bank strike was observed today following a call by various bank unions. The strike, announced earlier for January 27, 2026, led to the closure of physical bank branches across the country.
As a result, in-person banking services were disrupted, affecting customers and business transactions nationwide.

Why are banks on strike?

Bank unions are demanding the implementation of a five-day work week, similar to other major financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), General Insurance Corporation (GIC), and stock exchanges.
Currently, banks remain closed only on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month, along with Sundays. The unions are demanding that all Saturdays be declared holidays, bringing banks in line with the standard Monday-to-Friday work schedule.
The government had agreed in principle to this demand during the bipartite wage settlement in March 2024, but the decision has not yet been implemented.

Talks failed, strike called

Last week a conciliation meeting was also convened in New Delhi by Chief Labour Commissioner Sonal Mishra, attended by representatives of UFBU, the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), various banks, and officials from the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance.
However, the talks failed to reach any concrete outcome. Following this, the unions decided to go ahead with the nationwide strike.

Who has joined the strike?

All Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) banks have participated in the strike.
UFBU represents nine major unions of bank employees and officers across both public and private sector banks. However, large private lenders such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank have opted out of the strike.

More finance news:

What happens next?

The unions clarified that their intention is not to inconvenience customers, but to ensure better working conditions for bank employees.
With increasing workload and rising pressure in the financial sector, bank staff are facing significant mental stress, which is impacting overall productivity. A five-day work system, they argue, is essential to ensure better work-life balance in the banking sector.

Are services affected?
Although physical bank branches remained closed today, online and digital banking services continued to function normally.
Most routine financial transactions remained unaffected. However, branch-level services such as cash deposits, cheque clearances, loan processing, and in-person customer support were disrupted, as official banking operations were suspended for the day.