A message claiming that banks will now remain closed on every Saturday is circulating widely on social media, sparking questions about whether the banking sector has finally shifted to a five-day work week. The claim has been circulating amid ongoing demands by bank unions for the implementation of a five-day work week.
PIB Fact Check has flagged similar claims about an immediate five-day banking week as fake and misleading, stating that there was no government notification establishing all Saturdays as bank holidays at present.
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At present, the banking holiday arrangement provides for the second and fourth Saturdays of every month as holidays for public sector banks. Other Saturdays continue to be working days, subject to the applicable banking calendar and regional holidays. The Ministry of Finance reiterated this position in its September 21 statement.
The five-day work week has been a long-standing demand of the United Forum of Bank Unions and other banking organisations. According to the finance ministry, the unions had raised two major demands: implementation of a five-day banking week and withdrawal of the Performance Linked Incentive scheme.
The ministry stated that the government subsequently decided to keep the PLI scheme in abeyance, while the demand for the five-day banking week remained unresolved. the issue also led to industrial action in September, with the finance ministry stating that a nationwide three-day strike had been scheduled from September 28 to September 30.
The government had also announced special banking arrangements around the September strike. The finance ministry stated that September 27 was a Sunday falling immediately before the proposed three day strike, while September 30 was the half-yearly closing date for banks.
In order to prevent an extended disruption to banking services, public sector banks and regional rural banks were directed to function normally on Sunday. The ministry said that the Reserve Bank of India had also approved the opening of bank branches, offices, ATM-linked branches and currency chests on that day.
For now, customers should continue to follow to applicable bank holiday calendar, under which the second and fourth Saturdays are holidays, along with Sundays and other notified public holidays.
The five day banking week proposal may continue to be discussed between the government, banking authorities and employee organisations, but any nationwide change to the existing Saturday working arrangement would require an official notification by the government.
The viral claim that all Saturdays have already been declared as bank holidays is, therefore, not supported by the latest official information from the finance ministry.
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