Five Days Week A mistake.

Dear Editor,
At the moment Malaysia cannot afford a
five days week.As it is , many of the govt.
departments are struggling to clear the backlog of
their current workload and the newly going to-be
implemented five days week is going to increase that
workload.The land office is one typical department
that has a pile up of land transfer applications and
even with computerisation the waiting period for such
transfer to be completed can be 3 to 6 months.In
addition to this, sub-division of land now takes a
minumum of 1 to 2 years and with the five days week
the period is going to be longer.
Another area that will suffer with the five
days week would be the judiciary.As it is, the backlog
of court cases have already reached an unprecedented
delay time.Some civil cases have a waiting period of
up to 5 years and even without the new five days week
the outstanding cases have not been resolved. The old
adage that justice delayed is justice denied is going
to be more pronounced.
All these backlogs in workload could have been
averted if the govt. introduce a five day week but at
the same time open all govt departments for seven days
week.This effectively means we have a win-win situation
where civil servants enjoy a five days week but at the
same time keeping all govt. dept open for seven days
week.This can easily be accomplished by rotating off
days for staff. Some staff may take week days off and
some may work during week-ends.All these would merely
involve some administrative juggling and should not
pose any problems in the organisational structure.One
added advantage of a seven days week would be the
creation of more employment opportunities and this
should offer employment avenues for our unemployed
graduates.The increased revenue obtained from the
seven days week should easily offset the cost of
additional staff.
While it is commendable for the govt. to give
more time for civil servants to spend with the family,
it is also important that the govt should ensure the
quality of service rendered to its citizens should not
be compromised.While a seven days week has not been
tested any where in the world, I suggest the govt
seriously consider its implemetation because I feel it
is a viable proposition.

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