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With the recent surge in coronavirus cases due to the new super mutant strain Omicron, bank unions on Wednesday demanded a five-day week for banking operations and capping the attendance of the workforce to 50% in Maharashtra till the pandemic scenario improves.
In a letter to the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC), the United Forum of Bank Unions (Maharashtra State) also urged to consider restricting banking hours till 2 pm.
This will help in reducing the customer interaction time at the branches/ offices and will, therefore, reduce the risk of contamination among the employees of banks and customers, it added.
Bank of Maharashtra is the SLBC convenor in the state.
The forum said the bankers, being in close contact with the public in general, are more prone to the infection, it said.
The forum has also sought to provide booster doses to all eligible bank employees in order to control the rapid spread of infection at this juncture.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 26,538 fresh coronavirus cases on Wednesday, up 43.71 per cent, or 8,072 cases, from a day ago, while eight more patients succumbed to the infection in the state, the health department said.
With these additions, the state's COVID-19 tally rose to 67,57,032, while the death toll increased to 1,41,581, it said.
The state also recorded 144 new cases of the highly contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking their cumulative tally to 797, the department said. On Tuesday, Maharashtra had logged 18,466 new COVID-19 cases and 20 fatalities.
With agency inputs
