PANAJI: Bank employees across Goa observed a one-day strike on Friday under the banner of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), demanding implementation of a five-day banking week and withdrawal of the Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.
The UFBU has warned of a three-day nationwide strike from September 28 to 30 if the issues remain unresolved, followed by an indefinite strike from October 26.
UFBU Goa State Convener Santosh Haldankar said the demand for five-day banking had been pending for nearly a decade. While an agreement in 2015 provided for holidays on the second and fourth Saturdays, he said the assurance of eventually making all Saturdays holidays had not been implemented.
Haldankar said the unions had proposed extending working hours by 40 minutes from Monday to Friday to compensate for the 28 Saturdays that would no longer be working days. “We will be giving more service to customers during these extra hours than what we are not giving on Saturdays,” he said.
According to Haldankar, the proposal was approved by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and sent to the Ministry of Finance in 2024, but is yet to receive approval. He also criticised the revised PLI structure, saying it had created a sharp disparity between senior officers and the rest of the workforce.
Haldankar said the earlier arrangement provided profit-linked benefits of up to 15 days' salary, whereas the revised scheme introduced in November 2024 covers employees from Scale 4 to Scale 7 through a different calculation based on individual performance. “Out of eight lakh employees, only around 40,000 are from Scale 4 to Scale 7. The amount paid to them by the banks is more than 20 times what 95% of us are getting,” he said.
He claimed officers had received between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 19 lakh for 2024 and 2025, while the majority of employees received a maximum of around Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000. The unions have also challenged the issue before the Delhi High Court, while discussions with the IBA and conciliation authorities are continuing.
General Secretary of the Goa Bank Employees Association and Joint Secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association, Maxi Pereira, said the strike involved nearly eight lakh employees across the country, including sweepers, sub-staff, clerks and officers, across around two lakh branches.
Pereira said five-day banking had already been negotiated as part of the 12th Bipartite Settlement signed on March 8, 2024. “The fundamental issue before us is that this government has betrayed us and violated the sanctity of our settlement,” he said.
He argued that banking performance was the result of collective work and therefore incentives should not be disproportionately linked to individual ratings of senior employees. Pereira said the revised arrangement for Scale 4 and above, covering around five per cent of the workforce, had created divisions within the banking sector while the matter remained sub judice.
On the working-week demand, he pointed out that several financial and allied institutions, including the Reserve Bank of India, LIC, GIC, NABARD and stock and forex markets, already operate on a five-day schedule. He said employees were willing to put in additional hours during weekdays and stressed that customers would continue to have access to digital banking, ATMs, UPI and internet banking throughout the week.
Pereira also raised concerns over staff shortages and mounting workplace stress, claiming that more than 500 bank employees had died by suicide over the past decade. He said the proposed 40-minute extension each weekday would translate into 1,173 additional customer service hours annually compared with working two Saturdays a month.
The unions said the next course of action would depend on the government's response to their demands.
