Two-day weekly off remains

The government has moved back from its plans to revert the weekly off to one day instead of two days .

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 April 2013, 11:55 AM
Updated : 3 April 2013, 12:48 PM

A highly placed source told bdnews24.com Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina did not agree to the proposal.

The source said it was decided that work may be done on the weekend if need be to get over losses caused by shutdowns. The fact that the people are habituated to having two days of weekly holiday also played a part in the latest proposal being shot down.

In addition, there was this contemplation that general strike could well be enforced on Saturday even if the weekly holiday were reduced.

There have been growing concerns by the businesses over the reduced number of working days due to continuous general strikes in recent months.

Quoting several sources, bdnews24.com earlier ran a report that a summary reached the Prime Minister’s Office Wednesday noon after internal government discussions for a Friday-only weekend.

Speaking to bdnews24.com, one of the sources had said the move aimed at recovering losses inflicted due to continuous strikes in recent times.

Amid general strikes, the government has already ordered bank branches to operate on Saturdays to recover losses incurred as a result of the shutdowns.

After independence, Bangladesh only had one weekly holiday on Sunday. Initially during Ershad’s regime Friday and Saturday were weekend holidays only to be reverted to Friday.

During the Awami League government’s 1996-01 tenure, the government reinstated the Friday-Saturday weekends.

Businesses have been complaining against a Friday-Saturday weekend because Sunday is a holiday in other countries and that creates problems for trading.