THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One of the major demands of service organisations, five-day week, has been rejected by the Tenth Pay Revision Commission on the grounds that state government employees would not be able to sustain the work ethic of their central government counterparts.
The Commission said that on the face of it the claim that the state should adopt the 5-day week norm of central government employees looks quite reasonable. “However, what we notice is that Central government employees work 40 hours a week while in Kerala it is not so,” the report stated.
Further, the report stated that most employees in the state live in their own homes and spend long hours travelling to their place of work and back.
“Hence it would be impossible to increase the working hours in government offices and educational institutions,” the report stated.
The proliferation of local holidays is the other reason why the PRC has rejected the concept.
“It is common knowledge that Kerala has large number of local holidays over and above the holidays declared by the Central government. In these circumstances, we are unable to endorse the suggestion by the employees’ associations to introduce 5-day week in Kerala,” the report concluded.
