Let’s push public holidays to Friday’s and Mondays – Randy Abbey advocates

Host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, Dr Randy Abbey is advocating for a change in Ghana’s Public Holiday’s Act which will allow holiday’s that fall between Tuesdays and Thursdays to be pushed forward to either Fridays or Mondays.

Speaking on Friday, May 14, 2021, edition of the show, Dr Randy Abbey argued that such a change will help manage the level of disruption to work that comes with holidays that falls between Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“When a holiday falls on Tuesday, we will go to work on Tuesday, we go for the holiday and then we go back to work on Wednesday. But it appears to be a bit disruptive and it becomes a problem because in other jurisdictions yes, the day is observed but the holiday is pushed to the weekend. So, you have a bit of a long weekend where you have these shops doing their promotions and all that,” he said.

He stated in his argument that, despite calling for the holidays to moved the commemorative aspect of it could still be maintained on the day it falls on in order to come up with a more efficient structure that ensures little disruption to working activities.

The Chief Executive Officer of the State Transport Company (STC), Nana Akomea who was a guest on the show in agreeing with the host said, “We don’t lose anything but rather what we lose is the disruption.”

Nana Akomea thus urged the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George who was his co-panellist to raise the matter on the floor of Parliament and cause the Minister of Interior to take up the matter.

“Just a one-line amendment that says that ‘any holiday that falls on a working day would be observed but the holiday will be observed on the subsequent Friday.’ That can be done, I believe that should be done. But the problem is some of these amendments are better carried by the state. Because the processes of a Private Members Bill, whether it is a one-line to an existing act will have to be followed,” the MP noted when he was asked whether it could be possible to effect such an amendment using the processes of a Private Members Bill.