Bank holidays in March 2020: There will be no work in banks for as many as 19 days in the month of March which means the banks will have a lot of holidays indeed. There will be 16 holidays including second Saturdays, Sundays and Holi. Wait, there is more! Then there is bank strike too. Banks have also called a strike for three days in this month which will take the overall tally to 19 days of no work depending on the region you may be in.

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Bank strike in March 2020
Banks have called a strike in every month this year. The workers called a strike in January and February and now in March too they have called for one. They are demanding a salary hike. The bank strike is likely to be from 11 March to 13 March. Bank employees are demanding a hike of 25% while the Indian Bank Association (IBA) has given consent for a 12.5% hike. The employees are opposing the move.

List of Bank holidays in March 2020:

1 March is a Sunday
5 March is a Wednesday and Panchayati Raj Day in Odisha
6 March is Friday when Mizoram will be celebrating Chapchar Kut festival
8 March is a Sunday
9 March  is Monday when Uttar Pradesh will be observing Hazrat Ali anniversary
10 March is Tuesday when Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura will be celebrating Dol Jatra or Dol Purnima
10 is also when the country will be celebrating Holi festival
14 March is second Saturday
15 March is Sunday
22 March is Sunday
23 March is Monday when Haryana will be observing Shaeed Bhagat Singh Day
25 March is Wednesday and Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir
26 March is Thursday and Gujarat, rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be observing Cheti Chand anniversary
27 March is Friday and Jharkhand will be observing Sarhul festival
28 March is fourth Saturday
29 March is Sunday

Salary revision after Every 5 years
The bank employees' salary is revised every 5 years. There was a delay in salary increments last time too. The salary was increased in 2015 instead of 2012. IBA formed a committee to resolve the issue. Among the demands made by the employees,  5-day work week in line with the practices in international banks and companies, hiring people to fill vacancies and improvement in old pension.

In February, the Dearness allowance of the employees has been raised by 4.2%. This increase is for the April Quarter. The IBA had issued an order regarding this in January. The order said that the December 2019 numbers for AIACPI (All India Average Consumer Price Index) had come, according to which, average CPI for October 2019 was 7418.42 which went up in December to 7532.55. It was 7486.90 in November.

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RBI steps back from stopping the strike

RBI has refused to mediate in the strike. A PIL was filed on this in the Gujarat high court. RBI said that it will not mediate between the employees and the IBA. PIL urged the court to take against the unions calling on the strike.