Bank employees and officers across India will observe a three-day nationwide strike from September 28 to 30, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) announced. Their main demands are a five-day banking week and the withdrawal of the newly introduced Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

UFBU said the strike follows unfulfilled commitments made in an agreement with the government more than two and a half years ago. Narendra Sharma, UFBU's Himachal Pradesh convenor, told reporters that the unions had been left with no option but agitation. He said the PLI scheme was imposed unilaterally by the Department of Financial Services.

The government has appealed to the unions to defer the strike and said it has kept the PLI scheme in abeyance, the finance ministry said. It also approved the opening of bank branches and currency chests on Sunday, September 27, to give customers an extra banking day. SBI separately said its branches would stay open on Sunday.

The strike follows the September 26-27 weekend and ends on September 30, the half-yearly closing of banks, when reconciliation, provisioning and treasury work peak. UFBU said it would consider deferring the strike if there is concrete progress on the five-day banking demand.