The Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina is proposing that public holidays that fall on weekends be maintained, while those that fall between Tuesdays and Thursdays be moved to Fridays.
The MP has submitted a private member’s bill to Parliament seeking an amendment to the Public Holidays Act 2001, Act 601.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Mr Sosu said the Public Holidays (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (No.1) which had a primary purpose of ensuring the effective use of public holidays to ensure productivity sought to amend the Public Holidays (Amendment) Act, 2001, Act 601, to remove the power of the President to declare additional public holiday, grant authority to the President to merge public holidays, postpone the celebration of public holidays on productive days to Friday, remove criminal sanctions for non-observance of public holidays, and provide for related matters.
“When passed, public holidays that fall on days between Tuesday and Thursday shall be observed on Fridays. A substitute public holiday is an ordinary day that is treated like a public holiday instead of the actual public holiday. The basis for this proposal stems from the fact that productivity may be at its peak in the middle of the working week, say on a Tuesday or Wednesday.”
“The proposed amendment also gives relevant power and authority to the President to, by Executive Instrument, merge in a particular calendar year the celebration of any two public holidays in the public interest and in the interest of productivity,” he said.
Mr. Sosu stated that the proposal seeks to abolish the regime of criminalizing conduct associated with public holidays by repealing the offences and penalties provisions under section 5 of Act 601.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT FROM THE MADINA MP ON THE NEW BILLS HERE
