Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised bank employees for the hard work done during the demonetisation period, a bank union has demanded overtime for the extra hours put in by staff during the 50-day window that ended on December 30.

National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW), an affiliate of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, in a letter to the Prime Minister said, "Bank employees have worked 12 to 18 hours a day during the last 50 days. Only few banks have considered overtime for extra working. Kindly advise the management to consider the overtime for beyond working hours worked by bank employees."

It also called for stepping up recruitment activities and said that banks are understaff for implementing all schemes. NOBW vice president Ashwani Rana also pitched for decent salary hike in the wage revision due in November this year.

"Wage revision of bank employees is due in November 2017. Your government has already advised IBA to implement it on due date. We wish to bring to your kind notice that bank employees are far behind government employees in salary structure. Kindly give a good rise to bank employees and bring them at par with Govt employees," it said.

In his address to the nation, Prime Minister had said "during this period, bank employees have worked day and night. Female employees too worked till late hours as part of this mission".

Post office staff, banking correspondents - all did exceptional work, he had said.