15 June 2022| 14 Dhul Qadha 1443
Sri Lanka has approved a four-day work week for public sector workers to grow food in their back yards in a bid to forestall a looming food shortage as the government struggles with its worst financial crisis in decades.
The island nation, which employs about one million people in its public sector, has been hit by a severe foreign exchange shortage, which has left it struggling to pay for critical imports of fuel, food and medicine.
Many of the country’s 22 million people have to queue up at petrol stations for hours and have been enduring long power cuts for months.
Sri Lanka’s cabinet late on Monday approved a proposal for public sector workers to be given leave every Friday for the next three months, partly because the
Public employees will have every Friday off for the next three months without a pay cut, according to the cabinet decision, but the arrangement will not apply to essential services staff.
The government also said any public sector employee who wanted to travel abroad to find work would be given up to five years of unpaid leave without affecting their seniority or pensions.
The move is aimed at encouraging more people to get foreign jobs and send money back to the island, which is labouring under a critical shortage of foreign currency to buy imports.
made commuting difficult and also to encourage them to farm.
“It seems appropriate to grant government officials leave of one working day … to engage in agricultural activities in their backyards or elsewhere as a solution to the food shortage that is expected,” the government information office said in a statement.
The extra day off would be a “solution to the food shortage that is expected to occur in the future”, the statement read, adding that cutting down on civil servant commutes would also help reduce fuel consumption.
The United Nations last week warned of a “dire humanitarian crisis” and said four out of five people in the nation of 22 million were forced to skip meals as it planned to provide $47m to help more than a million vulnerable people.
Public employees will have every Friday off for the next three months without a pay cut, according to the cabinet decision, but the arrangement will not apply to essential services staff.
The government also said any public sector employee who wanted to travel abroad to find work would be given up to five years of unpaid leave without affecting their seniority or pensions.
The move is aimed at encouraging more people to get foreign jobs and send money back to the island, which is labouring under a critical shortage of foreign currency to buy imports.
Source – Al Jazeera