SBI staff work on a Sunday

With no services for two days, branches forced to keep open

The branches of SBI were open from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm throughout the country.

Not interested
For a few SBI employees, it was an experience not wanted. Deccan Herald spoke to a few customers who were more than happy with SBI’s decision and also to a few employees and managers who spoke about their first Sunday office experience.

SBI Branch Manager, Church Street, Nagaraju K P, said that while he had no option but to follow the order from higher ups, it was the duty of SBI to serve its customers with the many hours lost over the past few days.

“On Saturday, the server kept breaking down time and again. So for every 10 people, may be there were only one or two successful transactions,” he said. However, not many people utilised the opportunity and only around 15 customers visited the branch on Church Street.

Debit difficulty
Aditya R, employee at an IT firm, went to the SBI branch on Old Airport Road, nearest to his home on Friday after losing his ATM debit card. With the bank not functioning for customers, it was difficult for him to withdraw money from his account.

“It came as a surprise announcement when the papers reported it. If all Sundays were the same, I think a majority of the working class will find it useful,” he said.

On Sunday, he was able to withdraw cash and transfer money to another account.
P Bhuvana, Customer Relations Officer, M G Road branch of SBI told Deccan Herald, “We had our systems working for almost an hour in the afternoon on Saturday. We managed to do as many transactions as possible, but the closure on Friday was more troubling. So it was inevitable for us to work on Sunday.”

Few customers
Bhuvana said as few as 20 customers came to the M G Road branch. However SBI employees hope this is the last time they have to work on a Sunday while many customers said, they wish the trend continues every weekend.

An SBI employee from Old Airport Road branch said that working on Sunday is not easy when one has a family.

“The staff were all present but most branches I heard had very few customers. To save the image of the institution we the employees are put through this trouble. I did not see much use in working on a Sunday,” said the employee.