United Forum of Bank Unions Calls Three-Day Nationwide Bank Strike on September 28-30, 2026

Key facts

• The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of seven unions representing close to 90% of India's bank officers and staff, called a three-day nationwide strike on September 28, 29 and 30, 2026.
• The immediate trigger is a Department of Financial Services directive issued on August 21 asking banks to implement a revised Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme that unions say was changed unilaterally and unfairly.
• UFBU's other demands include immediate implementation of a five-day banking week, restoration of the Old Pension Scheme in place of the National Pension System, a uniform dearness allowance formula for retirees, and improved pension benefits.
• September 26 (fourth Saturday) and September 27 (Sunday) are standard bank holidays, so September 26 to 30 forms five consecutive days when many bank branches may be unavailable for customer-facing work.
• UFBU has approached the Delhi High Court, where the PLI matter remains pending, and argues that implementing the new formula violates the status quo required while the dispute is before the Chief Labour Commissioner.
• ATMs, UPI, IMPS, net banking and mobile banking apps are expected to function normally during the strike, while branch-level services like cash deposits and withdrawals, cheque clearance, demand draft issuance and locker access may be disrupted.
• Public sector banks are expected to be most affected; private banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are not part of UFBU and have typically remained open during past strikes.
• The Finance Ministry has urged employees not to join the strike and reviewed contingency plans with public-sector banks, regional rural banks and the Indian Banks' Association.
• UFBU confirmed it is proceeding with the strike after conciliation talks failed to resolve the dispute.