PANAJI: Bank employees will launch an indefinite strike from October 26 if the government fails to address their demands for a five-day banking week and changes to the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) Goa Convenor Santosh Haldankar said on Friday.
The announcement comes ahead of a three-day nationwide bank strike from September 28 to 30 over the same demands. Haldankar said bank unions have been seeking a five-day work week for over a decade and that an agreement reached between the unions and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on March 8, 2024, to declare all Saturdays as holidays remains pending with the Department of Financial Services (DFS).
Under the agreement, employees would work an additional 40 minutes from Monday to Friday in lieu of working Saturdays. “More than 10 years have passed since we were assured that, in due course, all Saturdays would be holidays. We are not asking for a five-day week to sit at home. We need to recharge physically and mentally so that we can provide better customer service on Mondays,” Haldankar said. He said the proposal has been pending with the government for over 30 months despite repeated assurances that it was under consideration.
Haldankar also opposed changes made to the PLI structure, saying unions were not against performance-based incentives but wanted a uniform system based on collective performance. He said a 2020 bipartite settlement introduced a PLI scheme covering employees from sub-staff to Scale 7 General Managers. Under the scheme, employees were eligible for five days of basic pay plus DA for 5% to 10% profit growth, 10 days for 10% to 15% growth and a maximum of 15 days for growth above 15%.
However, he said changes introduced in November 2024 allowed Scale 4 and above officers to receive incentives of up to 365 days of basic pay, while employees up to Scale 3 remained capped at 15 days. “The branch functions through teamwork. The cashier does their work, the manager does their work, and together they generate business and profitability. Everyone contributed to the additional Rs 2 lakh crore profit,” Haldankar said.
He claimed senior executives could receive incentives of around Rs 21 lakh to Rs 23 lakh, compared with around Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 for staff. “An incentive is meant to motivate employees, but when it becomes a tool to divide, discriminate and demotivate, it creates unrest,” he said. According to Haldankar, Scale 4 to Scale 7 officers constitute around 5% of the workforce, while the remaining 95% continue to be covered by the 15-day cap.
Haldankar said the workload on public sector bank employees has increased significantly over the past decade despite a decline in staff strength. He cited figures showing that customer accounts increased from 92.44 crore in 2015 to 160.16 crore in 2026, while branches rose from 86,349 to around 1.07 lakh. At the same time, staff strength declined from 8,59,692 to 6,28,203, a reduction of more than 2.3 lakh employees.
Net profit increased from Rs 36,280 crore in 2015 to Rs 1.98 lakh crore in 2026, he said. “Despite the reduction in staff and the increase in workload, bank employees have generated record profits,” Haldankar said. He also said employees face pressure to sell third-party products such as life insurance, mutual funds and general insurance in addition to their regular duties.
Addressing concerns over disruption during the strike, Haldankar said digital banking, internet banking and UPI services would continue. He said ATMs would be stocked ahead of the strike and outsourced agencies would handle cash replenishment to minimise inconvenience to customers. “We are not saying that banking services will stop on weekends. Digital banking, internet banking and UPI will continue,” Haldankar said.
He also criticised directions to keep bank branches open on Sunday, September 27, saying the move did not address the unions’ pending demands.
