Not another holiday!

Three consecutive major religious holidays may be a fine testimony to secularism in the positive Indian sense of not discriminating between religions, but it is no testimonial to India8217;s work culture. While it is important that various religious denominations are free to enjoy their own festivals and holidays and not forcedto observe holidays that mean little to them, this is quite easily addressed.

Religious holidays should be allowed to employees practising those particular religions, and others should have the option of taking them as a restricted holiday against another holiday. Where is the need for holidays for all central employees, now veering dangerously close to half the days in the year? At the time Rajiv Gandhi introduced the five-day work week, the expectation was that this would enhance productivity and cause no loss of work. If productivity has improved due to the longer weekend, that is a very well-kept secret indeed. But even apart from that, when the government so generously decided to extend the weekend, it should have taken into account the total number of holidays each year and whittled their number down so that the overall number of holidays did not increase due to the new weekend holiday.

Bureaucratic holidays affect a relatively small number of people. Some may find themselves temporarily out of workbut the public could not care less if fewer bureaucrats pushed pens in North or South Block. What does affect it, however, is essential public services, and in this respect excessive holidays are a severe nuisance. This leads to the fracas about bank holidays. The bank unions are outraged that the Reserve Bank has asked them to put in work for two full days on the weekend for the privilege of holidaying mid-week.

The unions are wrong, but so is the government. It is true that public-sector banks, theoretically more oriented to serving the public, have no business being closed for three full days. But it was not the bank employees who created three public holidays in a row. That said, it is time their workforce started getting used to the idea that different sectors will have different holidays, that work on weekends in essential services is normal worldwide, and that if they are to keep their jobs in the future a greater service commitment is required. At a time when there is at least notional pressure forrestructuring and retrenchment, the unions might try to make their members more fit to survive in future shake-ups. Yet judging by their depressingly predictable reaction, that is not happening.