An article written by Annaliza Borg entitled “How does eight weeks off a year sound to you?” seems to be unfair to Maltese workers (TMIS, 8 November).

It was clearly stated in this article that Maltese workers working a five-day week have a total of 38 holidays composed of 24 days vacation leave and 14 public holidays. Yes, this was the picture years ago, as nowadays all the workers know that public holidays that fall on a Saturday and/or Sunday are lost. Therefore it is not fair to say that Maltese workers have 38 holidays when, in real terms, this never happens.

Another unfair point stated in this article was “the added bonus of the half days in summer that government employees and workers in parastatal companies still enjoy”. This is a very unfair statement for public sector employees.

First of all I must point out that only one third of employees in the public sector work shorter schedules in the summer months. Moreover, this is definitely not an “added bonus”. Government employees on this type of working schedule work the same number of hours like any other worker, that is an average of 40 hours a week. The only difference is that these employees work an additional 45 minutes each day between 1 October and 15 June, which eventually compensate for fewer hours in the rest of the calendar year. This is just simple mathematics and definitely not a kind of “bonus”.

For the sake of fairness, these are the real facts.

Mario Sacco

Secretary

Government Employees Section

UHM