Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Bank employees staged a protest in the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal on Wednesday demanding a five-day working week for banks.
The employees gathered outside the Punjab National Bank Zonal Office in Arera Hills in the evening and raised slogans in support of their demand. A meeting was also organised at the protest site.
The protest was held following a nationwide call by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU).
The Bhopal unit of the forum organised the demonstration, where bank union leaders addressed employees and warned that they could go on an indefinite strike if the government does not accept their demand soon.
Union leaders including Sanjeev Mishra, VK Sharma, Dinesh Jha, Praveen Meghani, Deepak Ratna Sharma, Nirbhay Singh Thakur, Sanjay Kudeshiya, VS Negi, Devendra Khare and Manish Bhargava addressed the gathering.
The speakers said that earlier banks worked from Monday to Friday for full days and also operated for half a day on Saturdays.
In 2015, an agreement was reached between the government and the Indian Banks’ Association, after which the second and fourth Saturdays were declared holidays, while the remaining Saturdays continued as full working days.
The employees argued that the workload in banks has increased significantly over the years, but the working system has not been changed accordingly.
They demanded that all Saturdays should be declared holidays and banks should follow a five-day working week system.
