Dec 27th has been declared a public holiday. WTF?

AniV said:
Our company ran the leave transactions for the 4 days of Christmas over 2 months ago.
In order to re-compensate all those employees their day of leave back, they have to do a special bulk change, or roll back the entire 4-day transactions of over 1000 employees and then re-roll them with only 3 days.

Such sudden action by the presidency means companies were not prepared for this. They suddenly have to foot the bill for a day without any productivity. Employees who are working anyway now have to be paid overtime. It is huge expenses for our employers and companies. It will probably hit small businesses harder than the large companies, but nonetheless, it's a sudden unexpected expense.

As an employee, I rejoice at the idea of getting a day of leave back. But I would have been fine without it. It's natural for public holidays to occasionally fall over the weekend. Next year it probably won't. But we have this entitlement complex in SA. We don't have to work. We demand. We should just get. I understand why they requested an extra holiday, and sure, I'm gonna enjoy that day off. But at the same time I agree it was extremely short notice and done without proper planning. It will definitely hurt the economy a little.
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I agree, this creates unnecessary work. I have decided that those that want to, will work on 16th December and those that don't will have one day less leave next year
 
So we can prepare for next year as the 25th is on a Tue so the Mon will probably be a holliday too?
 
cronjec said:
lol! Cause those 4 working days between Christmas and New Year is usually so productive.
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I have a legal requirement to take 10 consecutive days every year (reserve bank rules). I take my 10 days over this non productive period. The additional public holiday means my leave is extended into the busy period in January by another day. Sure, extra holiday for me is great, but the work I have to do doesn't go away an it isn't a non-productive day being thrown away in my case.
 
cronjec said:
lol! Cause those 4 working days between Christmas and New Year is usually so productive.
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You think that just because you sit in an office pushing paperwork that nothing happens? Some manufacturing business try to catch up time to build up stock for the new year.
 
MickeyD said:
'cos of the cost to the economy.
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Seriously? 25th December (Christmas Day) falls on a Sunday. So essentially people are losing a holiday. Our economy coped every other year with the 25th and 26th as public holidays so what's the difference.

Actually, it might give the economy a boost as people will go out and spend money. Most factories are closed. Most businesses hardly get anything done, so I think it's a great idea.
 
czc said:
You think that just because you sit in an office pushing paperwork that nothing happens? Some manufacturing business try to catch up time to build up stock for the new year.
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duh! the factory machines do not stop. Only the humans.
 
MickeyD said:
'cos of the cost to the economy.
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Seriously though, what is the cost to the economy given that people could be spending vast amounts of money at holiday destinations during an already quiet period?
 
Im not in accounts, Im getting an extra day of leave outta this I am so not complaining. Guys.... most of the factories close down over the holiday season. I think this week alone I know of about 6 plants that all staff are going on leave until the 3rd of Jan. Its not like this will effect our manufacturing in any big way.

Well at least not in East London. Its traditional for the factories all to close down from around the 20th to the 3rd. Those of us in IT normally get a chance to work on the networks a lot during this time. There is no other time of the year where you get such a big break to work on physical networking.
 
The Rat said:
Seriously though, what is the cost to the economy given that people could be spending vast amounts of money at holiday destinations during an already quiet period?
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It's not the 27th that counts...

MickeyD said:
Short sighted view.

By making it a public holiday, all employees now have 1 extra day's leave that they can take sometime in 2012.
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For those people that are on leave (which is a large proportion of the working population) this is an extra day of leave that we can get at another time. For those people that are working they get the correct amount of public holiday in 2011, and for those that have to work they get holiday pay for that day.
It may be a little tough for the businesses, but it is good for ordinary people that work hard and keep the economy ticking over.

I get the feeling that most of the grumbling here is a kneejerk response because you don't like the government. I reckon he has made the right decision for the majority of people that actually voted for them... you are in the minority.
 
Did we not already have an extra public holiday his year? So now we have 13 days.

Why did the maroons only realise it now 10 days before Christmas, this is going to create a big headache for most HR departments.

When is this country going to become more business friendly?
 
Whine, whine. Factories are generally closed then anyway. Sorry, forgot this is South Africa..."The sky is falling, the sky is falling".
 
In my job, im on 24/7 emergency call. Ive spent Xmas`s working before. Dear HR and Accounts, this is how it feels :D Kind regards, IT :D
 
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