Those Holidays Again

23^rd June 2006

The Malta Independent - Friday Wisdom

Half measures lead to convoluted results. And this is exactly what is happening with the public holidays issue that has been brought to the surface by the ILO ruling.

May be some background would not be out of place for those who suffer from short memories.

In the ‘bad’ old Mintoff days when government had the guts to take unpleasant decisions in order to protect competitiveness a Labour administration had knocked off a handful of public holidays in compensation for legislating a four week vacation leave for all.

It was a bold decision which displeased the Church authorities as many of the abolished public holidays had religious motives and displeased workers in the public sector who had gained privileges for extended leave entitlement, sometimes exceeding six weeks. It was pretty neutral for private sector employees who gained in annual vacation leave what they lost in public holiday entitlements.

The productive sector obviously welcomed this bold move in that it rebalanced the excess privileges of public sector employees in comparison to their brethren in the private sector and eliminated wasteful mid-week stoppages that cause severe disruption to efficient production.

The system had set in and the political price for such unpleasant but necessary step had been paid. Serious politicians should never, in the national interest, play for the political gallery in promising reversal of hard earned concessions that provide instant political acclamation at the expense of long term prejudice to competitiveness.

But this is exactly what a new PN administration did in 1987. It re-instated most of the public holidays that were ‘taken away’ and to compromise further our competitiveness added an additional week of vacation holidays in graduated steps over a five-year period.

The serious shock to our competitiveness came out as time unfolded in the longer term as the economic growth slowed down and whatever growth remained was mainly consumption driven (extra holidays lead to more consumption) rather then the more sustainable production driven.

The Gonzi administration, partly because a new man at the helm permits himself the luxury to revise old habits and partly under the external discipline of EU membership, acknowledged that we were taking too many holidays to remain competitive with the rest of the EU, indeed the rest of the world.

But not having the same determination of the ‘old’ Mintoff habits of calling a spade a spade, rather than doing the obvious and simple thing of scratching off a few public holidays, nibbled at the problem by declaring that for public holidays that fall on a weekend no extra day leave in lieu will be granted. The law of averages dictates that this would add 4 working days to a normal year.

This roundabout way of doing things meant that the government was nullifying by legislation specific collective agreements signed between Unions and Employers providing for such extra days of leave. It this interference of annulling by legislation what was agreed at industry level through free collective bargaining that was condemned by the ILO. The right of government to decide on the number of public holidays has not in any way been disputed.

The second half of the legislature is never a time for government to take bold moves. If the issue was tackled as it should have been tackled two years ago by now the matter would be dead and buried. But because half measures were adopted the issue keeps coming back for reconsideration at a time when government’s room for manoeuvring is getting more limited by the day.

The need for the MCESD to be re-invented in underlined by its inability to broker a consensus over such rather small matter. Is it possible that we cannot understand that we do not afford the luxury of celebrating each year five national holidays. Can’t we come to an agreement to celebrate one national holiday each year by rotation (thus avoiding the political rigidities of choosing the national day) and celebrate the other four on the nearest weekend. After all nationhood is an evolving process and no one day symbolises the whole process.