The General Workers’ Union yesterday called on the government to restore the leave entitlement it has been denying workers since the budget it presented for 2005. The budget measures for that year saw public holidays falling at weekends not being added to leave entitlements.

The GWU said it alone had made its case at the International Labour Organisation, which found in its favour and declared that no one, not even a government should interfere in agreements concluded between unions and employers. Almost all the unions in the country had joined it in a national protest against the government’s decision, the GWU said. Only the UHM had not taken part.

For the past two years, the GWU added, it had kept up its pressure both locally and abroad, calling on the government to restore the law to what it had been. It said the removal of a few days of leave had not added as much to the country’s productivity as the workers had lost.

The GWU added that, once the government was saying that the economy was sound, the time had come to restore to the workers what it had taken from them. It said that when next Monday it presented the budget for 2008, the government should give back to the workers those days of holiday which fell on a weekend.