Unscheduled public holidays disrupt productivity
MALAYSIA has 14 federal public holidays that are observed nationwide. Apart from that, each state has additional days to mark significant dates and festivals, adding up to 18 days per state. After deducting the scheduled holidays, the number of working days in Malaysia, including Saturdays and Sundays, are around 350 days a year.
Malaysia’s GDP is estimated to be around Rm4.8bil a day. Any unscheduled public holiday means Malaysia loses Rm4.8bil for that day; also, the estimated salary cost for one additional public holiday in Malaysia is about Rm1.5bil.
There was euphoria among the public when yesterday was declared an unscheduled public holiday.
To business entities, however, an unplanned holiday is disruptive. Meetings have to be cancelled, training sessions and conferences have to be postponed, etc.
Additionally, dealings with government offices will have to be postponed, resulting in lost time and productivity.
Ad hoc public holidays should be discouraged given that they waste public funds and give the impression that Malaysia is an overly “happy-go-lucky” nation. It makes us look like we do not care about productivity and growth.
There should be a clear federal policy to ensure that an unscheduled public holiday is only allowed based on proper criteria.
Former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Kassim said on Sept 16, 2019, that Malaysia is noted for having among the highest number of public holidays in the world.
“I remember the various chambers of commerce expressing their frustrations over this. As far as they are concerned, too many public holidays is costly for businesses,” he told the media.
He warned that Malaysia would be pricing itself out of the competition for foreign investments “if we go too far with public holidays”.
“For the sake of the country, the government should stop declaring such unscheduled holidays,” he said.
Maybe this is an opportune time for the new administration to study the matter and effect reforms in the number of working days and public holidays.
For the sake of the country, the government should stop declaring unscheduled public holidays