Holidays cost too much
September was full of them, October has another one, and then November, and of course December brings Christmas. The Belizean calendar is full of holidays. But what does all this time off cost us? Patrick Jones did a little investigating to find out.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
An ordinary calendar year is comprised of three hundred and sixty-five days. But not all of them are working days. When you factor in weekends, public and bank holidays, sick days and vacation, the time for productive work dwindles significantly. But has anyone really taken the time to look at what all this is costing the country?s economy? While the private sector is only one part of the equation, manager of membership services and labour for the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dionne Miranda, says it?s a situation that takes a heavy toll on productive sector.
Dionne Miranda, Man. of Membership Services & Labour, Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry
?It does affect productivity to some extent because with globalization like we talked about, while other countries are awake we are asleep basically and so we are not up to that level. But the reality is that people do need that rest time as well and other countries are taking holidays as well.?
Of the three hundred and sixty-five calendar days, one hundred and four of them are taken up by the weekends, leaving two hundred and sixty one. Since an employed person is due a minimum of two weeks paid vacation every year, that means that some people get another ten days away from the work place. Down to two hundred and fifty-one. Factor in more or less fifteen public and bank holidays and the available work days drops to two hundred and thirty six. And on top of that, labour laws allow for a worker to claim sixteen sick days. All that leaves the employer with, is only two hundred and twenty days in which to get the job done. But no one in their right mind would dare suggest less holidays, would they?
Dionne Miranda
?I think at some point this is our culture and history and removing that from us would actually be removing a part of us that we?ve grown accustomed to and is a part of what makes Belize, Belize. So I don?t think that you could actually cut down on the amount of public holidays I think it would be something for us to work on in terms of organization to organization is to improve the level of productivity that we currently have by looking at sound management practices that we have in place.?
Then of course, there are those ever present week of activities. Lets see, right off hand I can recall covering activities for: Youth week, Scouts week, Prison week, Mental health week, Senior Citizens week, Children?s week, Drug Abuse Control week, Police week, Disabilities week, Women?s week, just to name a few. And although these are not holidays, don?t all regular work come to halt so that staff can devote their time to the particular week of activities? And while we may think that all this free time away from work is actually free, you might want to give that idea a second thought.
Dionne Miranda
?For every day that a business closes down you can actually see the loss. Certain business can go on definitely but in other ones, you can actually tie up, the operating cost still goes on. A business still needs to run electricity whether they?re open or close they still need security to handle it because of the high crime situation, everything still needs to work, the only reality is that you are not actually making any money at all to pay for any of those expenses over the days that you are actually close. So there is a high cost paid financially at that level.?
And while the productive sector will eventually recover from holidays, Miranda says, it puts a strain on everyone, even the well rested employee.
Dionne Miranda
?I would think in the industrial sector you have to make up. I mean there are crops which need to be pulled in, there is processing that needs to be done. I mean in certain areas things can?t sleep. Basically if you have oranges that need to be picked and you need juices to be processed it has to be done whether it?s a holiday or not a holiday. The industrial sector of our business cannot sleep as well as our commerce area can. Because the reality is if the rest of our population is in a relaxing mode and not in the mood to buy commerce may be able to sleep, but I think industry doesn?t have that capability. And there are actual parts of businesses within this country that never ever sleep. Because if they did they wouldn?t be as successful as they are.?
So to wrap all this up, the next time you are away from the work place, like on Monday, remember, your free time is not so free after all, and somebody?s actually picking up the tab, while you play. Reporting for News 5, Patrick Jones.
