Year after year, the civil service goes into semi-hibernation during the summer months, as the hours worked are cut in half for government employees to enjoy free afternoons.

The summer half days in the civil service are made up for with extra hours worked during the winter, but in this day and age should we still have a system whereby the government system shuts down at 1.30pm for three months in a year? Have we ever quantified how much this is costing the country? Do we realise that such a situation is not only affecting the public sector, but is also having an impact on the private sector too?

There was a time when government departments were not equipped to cater for the heat that hits us in the summer months, and this was one of the reasons that led to the creation of a half-day system. But today this is no longer a valid excuse.

While it is understandable that work that is carried out on the outside is not done at the peak of the sun’s rays, it is not understandable that government people leave their offices so early. Having free afternoons in the civil service blocks, or at least slows down, the private sector too, and a country that speaks of being more competitive in a globalised world cannot afford to lose so much.

The irony of it all is that there are some government departments that cannot close down in the summer afternoons, and this means that employees there – rightly so – are paid overtime for their services. But this, of course, comes at a cost to the taxpayer. So wouldn’t it be easier if summer half-days are eliminated once and for all? It would save money, and at the same time make the government service more efficient.

No government has as yet found the courage to tackle the situation. There are, apparently, too many votes that could be lost if such action was taken. Added to this, the unions representing public sector employees would be up-in-arms in no time to defend their members.

Each time the collective agreement for the civil service is being negotiated, there are hints that finally this system is about to be eliminated. But, so far, it has never materialised, maybe because most of these talks fall too close to an election.

What is sure is that the more time passes, the more the need to eliminate summer half-days is felt. It is a known fact that Malta’s biggest resource is the worker, but if the employees in the public sector spend so little time at the workplace during summer, it is inevitable that the government machinery slows down. The ripple effect of this is that there is a negative impact on the productivity of the private sector too.

The government speaks about competitiveness, and it was only last week that Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said that the budget for 2010 will focus on giving Malta a better platform from which it can compete with the rest of the world. Well, one of the first things that need to be done is to re-model the way the public service operates.