Bank Unions Demands 5-Day Week, 50% Attendance In This State: Omicron Impact?
As the number of COVID-19 cases has shown a massive increase due to the Omicron variant, bank unions have now asked for a five-day working week for banking operations.
In less than 2 months, the Omicron variant has spread globally, impacting traveling and curbing celebrations for the Christmas to New Year holidays.
Bank Unions Ask For 5 Day Working Week And Reduced Working Hours
The Omicron variant is known to be highly transmissible in nature, about 70 times faster than the delta variant or even the original Covid variant, states a Trak.in report.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (Maharashtra State) has written to the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC), asking them to consider restricting banking hours till 2 pm only.
They have also asked that the attendance of the workforce should be limited to 50% in Maharashtra, at least until there is improvement in the pandemic scenario. As mentioned above, the unions have also asked that the working days of the week should be reduced to five.
In the letter, the unions have stated that this will reduce the customer interaction time at the branches of the banks or offices and therefore reduce the risk of infecting the employees of the banks and customers as well.
The SLBC convenor in the state is the Bank of Maharashtra.
Forum Also Asks For Booster Doses For Bank Employees
As per the forum, bankers constantly are in close contact with the public and therefore are at a high risk to be infected with the Omicron variant.
It has also asked for booster doses to be given to all eligible bank employees so that the rapid spread of the disease can be controlled a bit.
The vaccine advisory panel of WHO recommended immunocompromised people, meaning people with weak immunity to receive a Covid-19 booster shot, along with the ones who received an inactivated vaccine.
The Indian government for its part has directed half of its employees ranking below Under Secretary to work from home, which is another result of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
Cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai have contributed to 75% of daily infections of the Omicron variant, as per Dr NK Arora, the Chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.