Overview
- The United Forum of Bank Unions led a one-day walkout on Friday that closed or partially shut thousands of public sector branches and halted cash deposits, withdrawals, cheque clearances and other branch services.
- Union figures say turnout was large: about 42,000 employees from nearly 7,000 branches in Madhya Pradesh and roughly 10,000 staff across 905 Lucknow branches stayed away, disrupting significant transaction volumes.
- The unions’ core demand is immediate government notification that all Saturdays be holidays under the 12th Bipartite Settlement, which they say was agreed with the Indian Banks’ Association but remains unnotified.
- Leaders also attacked the government’s Productivity Linked Incentive policy as discriminatory and criticised large PLI payments to top executives as unfair to frontline staff.
- The UFBU has announced a three-day nationwide strike for September 28–30 and warned of a possible indefinite strike from late October, a step timed to the half-yearly closure that could produce deeper service disruptions if talks do not progress.