The State Bank of India (SBI) has announced extra payments for its staff working in bank branches during country-wide lockdown to fight coronavirus.

As per the circular, the bank has decided to pay 'one-day's salary' (Basic Pay DA) for every six working days on which an employee has worked, starting from March 23 to 14 April, 2020 or till the end of the shutdown period, whichever is earlier.

The amount will be payable to all the employees posted in Branches, CPCs, CACs, Treasury Operations, Global Markets, GITC and IT Services. The payments will be made to the eligible staff members through HRMS after the stated period.

“In the wake of the spread of COVID-19 virus and the subsequent decision of a complete Lockdown announced by the Government of India to contain it, our Branches and CPCs have been working under difficult circumstances to provide banking services to the customers,” SBI said in the circular.

“As Banking Services are included in Essential services exempted from the Lockdown, our staff members at the Branches and CPCs have been serving the customers diligently, following the guidelines on ‘Social Distancing’,” it added.

The bank has also resorted to staggered working hours to maintain social distancing due to COVID-19 outbreak.