Public Banks Open Sunday to Offset a Strike for Saturdays Off

Public sector and regional rural banks will open on Sunday, 27 September, after the Reserve Bank cleared branches, offices, ATM-link units and currency chests. The extra day comes just before a three-day nationwide strike that the United Forum of Bank Unions has set for 28, 29 and 30 September, a stoppage built around a five-day banking week. That strike also lands on the half-yearly closing of bank books.

A strike for Saturdays off will be met with a government-ordered Sunday shift at the public counters. The same order keeps the cash vaults running so ATMs can be filled before staff walk out.

Public Sector Counters Open on a Sunday

The Department of Financial Services said on 23 September that function normally on Sunday, 27 September is the instruction for all public sector banks and regional rural banks. The Reserve Bank’s nod covers branches, back offices, ATM-link branches and currency chests, not only the teller line. The note names those two sets of banks. It does not name private banks.

In order to ensure that the genuine banking needs of the public are not adversely affected for an extended period, all Public Sector Banks and Regional Rural Banks will function normally on Sunday, the 27th of September, 2026.

Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, press release

Press Information Bureau carried the same lines at 12:54pm on 23 September, release ID 2313778. The department said customer convenience remains the government’s first concern, and that managements have asked unions to put the strike off.

▪️In view of the proposed three-day nationwide bank strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) from September 28 to 30, 2026, coinciding with the preceding weekend holidays of September 26 and 27, the government has taken proactive steps to safeguard the banking… pic.twitter.com/cP7096DXlU

— PIB India (@PIB_India) September 23, 2026

UFBU, which says it speaks for 90% of bank staff, is still calling members out on 28, 29 and 30 September. The forum is seven unions: AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF and INBOC. Talks before the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner on 22 September ended without a deal, as did earlier sittings on 8 and 9 September.

The Calendar Still Leaves Four Dark Days

26 September is the fourth Saturday of the month, a standing bank holiday. 27 September is a Sunday. Without the special opening, branch counters would have been dark from 26 through 30 September, five days in a row. The Sunday shift breaks that run. It does not erase it.

THE FIVE DAYS AROUND THE STRIKE

Customers still lose Saturday and then Monday to Wednesday at public sector and rural branches if the walkout holds. That is four closed days in a five-day window, with one manufactured working day in the middle. Private banks were not put on the Sunday roster, so their weekend looks like any other.

Half-Year Books Close on a Strike Day

30 September is not an ordinary Wednesday. It is the half-yearly closing, when banks reconcile ledgers, book provisions, and run treasury and market operations. The finance ministry, in a 21 September appeal to staff, warned that a stoppage on that date, stacked on the weekend before it, would hit customers, firms, government payments and overseas banking work.

That is why the Sunday order is wider than a few extra teller hours. Currency chests are the warehouses that feed ATMs. ATM-link branches are the rooms that keep those machines alive. Opening both on 27 September is a cash plan for a three-day gap, not a courtesy window for passbook updates. If chests are filled on Sunday, machines can still spit notes while clerks are on the gate.

State Bank of India had already told customers, before the Sunday announcement, to finish important work early and to lean on ATMs, automated deposit machines, customer service points, YONO, net banking, mobile banking and UPI. Indian Bank sent a shorter note pointing people to mobile banking, ATMs and other digital channels. Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India put out similar alerts. Those messages assume staff absence at the branch. They do not assume the pipes freeze.

Why Five-Day Banking Has Sat at the Ministry

The fight is not a new charter. In the 12th bipartite settlement and 9th joint note signed on 8 March 2024, the Indian Banks’ Association agreed to make the remaining Saturdays holidays if staff added extra 40 minutes each weekday. Unions say that package went to the finance ministry and has sat there since. In a 10 September press note, UFBU wrote that it had been “more than two and a half years” with no approval.

There will be no reduction in business hours for the customers because Unions have agreed for extra business hours for 40 minutes per day from Monday to Friday.

United Forum of Bank Unions, press release, 10 September 2026

Banks already close on the second and fourth Saturdays. First, third and fifth Saturdays are full working days. RBI, LIC, GIC, NABARD, central and state offices, and the stock, money and forex markets already run a five-day week, the unions argue, so only the leftover Saturdays in banks are still in dispute.

HOW SATURDAY BECAME THE FIGHT

1. 20 August 2015: The finance ministry, under section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, notifies the second and fourth Saturdays as bank holidays from 1 September 2015.
2. 1 September 2015: Those holidays begin. C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of AIBEA, said staff would work 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the first and third Saturdays, replacing the old half-day on every Saturday.
3. November 2020: IBA and the unions, in that year’s settlement, say the rest of the Saturday question will be talked through again.
4. 8 March 2024: The wage deal records five-day banking, with 40 extra minutes Monday to Friday, and sends it to the government for approval.
5. 23 August 2026: UFBU circulars set a one-day strike on 11 September, three days on 28 to 30 September, and a continuous stoppage from 26 October if the demand is unmet.
6. 11 September 2026: The one-day strike is held. The three-day call remains.

The government has put its performance-linked incentive scheme in abeyance, which had been the other main strike head. Residual union claims still include pension updates, a single dearness-allowance formula for pensioners, and a route from the National Pension System back to the old pension scheme. After the 22 September talks, UFBU said it would look at a deferral only if there was “concrete and positive development” on five-day banking. Ministry officials told the same meeting that many other parties still have to be heard.

5-Day Banking Demand: CH Venkatachalam on 3-Day Nationwide Bank Strike #UFBU #AIBEA

(Video Courtesy: ANI) pic.twitter.com/jdfpYNNX9v

— AIBEA: All India Bank Employees' Association (@AIBEAofficial) September 23, 2026

Who Still Needs a Branch Before Monday

UPI, cards, net banking and cash machines are the channels banks want used if clerks stay out. That split is the real customer map. A salary credit or a merchant UPI payment does not need a Sunday. A locker visit, a KYC file, a demand draft, or a cheque that must clear into the half-year books does.

BRANCH JOBS TO FINISH BEFORE MONDAY

• Cash at the counter: Large deposits, bulk withdrawals and any cash work that a machine will not take still need a clerk, and Sunday is the last staffed day before the strike dates.
• Cheques and paper: Drop boxes may stay, but clearing and the half-year close on 30 September can slip if back offices are empty.
• Files and lockers: KYC updates, loan papers, drafts and locker access are branch jobs, and they will not move on a phone app.
• Government and firm payments: The ministry’s 21 September note flagged government transactions and treasury work as exposed if 30 September is dark.

SBI’s own text asked customers to “complete important transactions in advance” and to use ATMs, ADWMs, CSPs, YONO, internet and mobile banking, UPI and other digital channels. The bank also said it would try to keep essential services going, and that the hit at each branch would depend on who joins the strike. Rural customers of regional rural banks, who still walk in with cash and papers, are the people the Sunday order is written for. Urban app users are already past the branch.

Staffing a Sunday to Win Saturdays Off

The Sunday opening is, on paper, a customer patch. On the floor it is extra duty in a dispute about cutting duty. A Bank of India officers’ union aligned with NOBO and BMS put that tension in the open on 23 September, asking why a Saturday-holiday campaign was sending people to work on the weekend around the strike.

If the call is for a strike, then why are they attending office on 26th and 27th September?

Bank of India Officers’ Organisation (BOIOO-NOBO), post on X, 23 September 2026

The official Sunday order covers 27 September only. 26 September remains the fourth Saturday holiday unless a bank is separately told to open, and the finance ministry’s note does not do that. The officers’ group still treated 26 and 27 as a pair, and said strike-day pay cuts fall on serving staff while several UFBU units are led by retired office-bearers. That is their charge, not a headcount. It is the argument that has filled union threads: a five-day-week strike that asks for a Sunday turnout.

UFBU’s own circulars still list an indefinite strike from 26 October if five-day banking is not brought in. The Sunday shift on 27 September restocks the chests and gives public-sector customers one more staffed day. It does not move that October date, and it does not grant the Saturday holiday the 2024 settlement already wrote down.