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Holidays

25 September 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Shakil Monzur Halishahar, Chittagong
25 September 2005, 18:00 PM
We have three sixty-five days in a year but how many days we work ? There are two off days in a week. So weekly holidays will account for 104 days in a year. Generally, as per standard practice supported by related laws and regulations there are provisions for 10 days casual leave and 14 days sick leave. The average earned leave is about 17 days on a calculation based on 1 day EL for 21 days of work. The government declared holidays and optional holidays account for 24 days. Total holidays accumulate to 169 days hence workings days reduce from 365 days to 196 days, which is only 53% of the available days in a year.

Apart from this, strikes and other political disruptions take away some more working days. There had been instances of observance of more than 100 days of political strikes in a year in this country. Minimum days of strikes on an average are 12 to 15 days in a year.

In such a situation we surprisingly notice that some ethnic and religious groups demand that their days of festivals be declared holidays. Generally, we work for eight hours, meaning one third of the time available for us. Now one can find how much effective time we work to survive and is that sufficient? Again, in cities like Dhaka and Chittagong where traffic congestion is severe, a lot of time is lost on the roads in traffic jam.

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Much has been discussed about holidays, weekly holidays and working days, especially in the recent days. My point is there should be one day weekend on Sunday. The number of other holidays should be reduced except in the case of religious festivals.