On Sunday, this newspaper’s sister publication published a front page article discussing the issue of government departments on half-days in the summer.

The unions seemed non-committal, particularly the UHM. But the GWU acknowledged that it is perhaps the right time to look into revamping the system. The Federation of Industry and the Chamber of Commerce Enterprise and Industry meanwhile, are of firm belief that the system needs changing and sooner, rather than later.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister on Sunday hinted that the issue should be discussed in the upcoming civil service collective agreement negotiations. The last agreement was signed in 2005 and draws to a close at the end of this year.

It is absolutely crystal clear – something has to change. The unions argue that many government employees work extra hours in the winter to allow them to work half-days in the summer. This, put quite simply, has to stop. In today’s day and age, government workers are still having to work beyond the half-day’s end and as a result, they are sometimes kept on and paid overtime.

The FOI and the chamber also argue that business does not stop in summer and that a busy private sector must be supported by an efficient civil service, not one which shuts up shop at 1.30pm for the whole duration of the summer. The two organisations remarked that business sometimes has to be put on hold in summer simply because the civil service is not actually working.

We will also pick up on a point raised by the GWU and express our agreement. The union stated that there were some sections of workers who have to be out and about during the day – which is not exactly the most pleasant of things at 1.30pm in August.

But back to the matter at hand, half-days off in summer must be put into the context of what is happening around the rest of Europe. Greece has frozen civil service pay and the UK is considering similar initiatives, simply to cut down on wage bills and to try and get their economies back into top gear.

In a separate article published last week, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech stated that austerity measures were not for Malta, but he also said that the government would be monitoring matters to manage costs responsibly. The issue of half-days in summer, is one such area where responsible cost management should be implemented. Malta is not in the situation of other European countries because it has always taken preventive measures. But surely, in the climate that we are in, we should continue to be prudent and eliminate unnecessary costs, improve efficiency, and above all, facilitate matters for the private sector to do business.

While the government is right to tackle the issue, it must decide whether it is going to push through reforms in one fell swoop, or stagger them through until the next agreement is signed. In The Prince, Machiavelli says a ‘loved prince; can afford to stagger in change, but a new prince or an ‘unloved’ prince should do whatever needs to be done in one go so as to contain the anger in one outburst. Quite which type of ‘prince’ the government thinks it is, remains to be seen, but whichever strategy it opts for, there must be strict monitoring of the changing system, in order to keep implementation levels satisfactory.

Malta still has a bloated public sector and this all goes back to the pre-election madness of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. The present government has tried to slim it down by offering early retirement schemes as well as not engaging new workers, but it is now time to get to the nitty-gritty of things and focus on efficiency. Half-days off in the summer (compensated for by 45 minutes extra every day in winter) is not conducive to efficiency.