Bangalore: Govt Staff may get 5-day Week
Times of India
Bangalore, Feb 7: Government staff working in Bangalore won’t stop smiling when they read this news. If governor Rameshwar Thakur approves, then they will have a five-day week work schedule with Saturday-Sunday being holidays. They will join the ranks of IT and other private firms staff.
But this cheering news comes with a rider. They will have to work two hours extra from Monday to Friday to compensate for Saturday. Their present working hours are from 10 am to 5 pm. The proposed timings are — 9 am to 6 pm.
“We are yet to send this proposal to governor Rameshwar Thakur. We will also hold talks with employees unions if need be,’’ P B Mahishi, before being transferred from the chief secretary’s post, told reporters here on Wednesday. The reasons given for the proposal are: a five-day week will give additional rest for the employees, ease traffic in Bangalore and other cities, and save on overheads like power, water and phone bills. The additional off day is supposed to invigorate employees and improve their efficiency.
The employees’ association has been cautious in welcoming the idea. “We want a five-day week. But we don’t want extended working hours on other week days and it should be implemented across the state and not in selected cities, L Byrappa, president, Karnataka state government employees association, said.
If brought into effect, this new work schedule will be the third time thatKarnataka is experimenting with. The first time it was tried out in 1970. Governor Dharma Vira introduced it during President’s rule. But D Devaraj Urs who took over as chief minister, reverted to the six-day work system.
The second time was when Karnataka implemented the Centre’s decision in 1983. But it was revoked after opposition from MLAs. Their grievance was that officials were not to be found when they went to their constituencies in the weekends.
Week Moments
Former CM S M Krishna planned to introduce five-day week in 2002. But changed his mind in the last moment. “Proposal was included in budget draft. But minutes before budget speech copies were to be printed, he dropped the idea,’’ an official said.
Hegde government asked IIM researchers to advise on five-day week. During the meeting, a senior bureaucrat whispered to one of the IIM team members: “Government has almost decided to go back to six-day week. Please ensure that you recommend something similar.’’