Solving the summer half-days issue

The summer half-days issue seems to crop up every year when the summer season sets in. Many insist that summer half-days in the civil service should be completely abolished, quoting buzz words like competiveness and productivity.

A Malta Independent journalist trying to make heads or tails about the issue recently had this to report: ‘One union says it is a non-issue, another seems to be more open to change but, three days before public service officers start working half-days, employers and businessmen believe that Malta cannot afford this “luxury” because it is undermining the country’s competitiveness.’

The first question to ask, of course, is: why do we have a civil service that does not work in the afternoons of the summer months? Many say it is because the summer heat is unbearable – an argument that makes sense in the case of manual workers engaged in road works or other activities in the open air.

Even in the private sector, it is normal for workers in the construction industry toiling outdoors to change their working hours in summer to avoid the blistering afternoon heat. In the case of clerical workers pursuing their duties in offices, these days of air-conditioning make such reasoning obsolete, even though this commodity does not come cheaply and the taxpayer would have to foot the bill. I have even heard one veteran suggest that this custom originated from the British Services with the bigheads wanting to enjoy the sun while sipping their gin and tonic in the lazy Maltese sunny afternoons more than doing any work in His – they had a king at the time – Majesty’s Service!

Whatever it is, the custom stuck to the extent that one union official now insists it is a non-issue. Before considering what is at stake, some myths about the custom should be dispensed with. Not all state employees work half-days in the summer months – many don’t. Moreover those that do, have their work times juxtaposed so that a reckoning of the hours they are on duty all the year round - both in winter and in summer – yields an annual average of a 40 hour week.

This is, of course, not saying that these employees really work for all those hours, but that’s another story! This fact should dispose of the productivity argument. If these people work for the same hours is their productivity effected according to how these hours are scheduled? Yes and no. But surely working in the damned heat does not increase productivity! Productivity is not increased by forcing people to work more hours or by increasing their pay-packet. Productivity is increased by motivating the workforce to feel comfortable at work and also to be able to look forward to a sense of satisfaction from their achievements when a job is done.

The real problem is in the areas where the civil service interfaces with the public needs. Not being able to use afternoons to make a query or try to solve a problem with a government department frustrates people. It is here that something should really be done – obviously without incurring unnecessary overtime expenses. If working hours can be juxtaposed for government employees to be able to go home – or to the beach – in the summer afternoons, surely no one should object to a flexible system that makes it possible for offices that are normally accessible to the general public to be open also in the afternoons.

The point about the country’s competitiveness – if I understand it correctly – is that the present system hinders the private sector’s efficiency with certain chores having to be restricted to the morning. The obvious result is that the morning queues are longer and there is an increase in waiting time needed for the processing of various documents, be they customs entries or whatever. This is the aspect of the issue about which those in the private sector are correct – it is the situation that makes them clamour for the abolition of summer half-days.

Yet the problem can be solved without resorting to the draconian measure of completely abolishing summer half-days. The higher echelons of the civil service should respond to this problem, and take up the challenge by devising a system that utilises flexible hours – flexitime – to ensure that the public is served adequately without the unnecessary delays now being caused by the fact that government offices are closed in summer afternoons. Such a system could also benefit government employees who need to balance their work commitments with their obligations towards the family, whether they are men or women.