Bankers protest against ending Saturday holiday

Protesters from various banks demanded the restoration of weekend holidays and Ramazan timings

ISLAMABAD:

The bankers across the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Monday staged protests outside the press clubs and State Bank of Pakistan buildings against the government's decision of declaring Saturday as a working day.

The protesters hailing from various banks of the country demanded the restoration of weekend holidays and Ramazan timings. They were holding placards and chanted slogans for the restoration of the weekend holidays.

Rizwan Ahmed, a protester said that a banker was working for 12-13 hours on average as his or her working timings used to start from 9am to 5pm without any break for prayer or lunch and used to pack at 8pm. "We used to reach office at 8:30am and the new timings of 8:00am are forcing to reach office at 7:30am which means an individual will have to leave his or her house at 6:45am to reach in time which is burdensome and insane."

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He urged the government to revise its decision and not announce an increase in working hours of banks as the banking staff was already facing tough working routine.

Shumaila Asjad, a female protester said that the employees of other public departments used to have a completely different routine who were hardly serving for 5-6 hours and also had prayer breaks.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2022.