To June 4th or Not – The Holiday Debate in Ghana (Part IV)

Final Part of a 4-Part Series

Too Many Holidays

I am also of the view also that already Ghana has too many public holidays, and that there is virtually no space to add even one more. Instead of adding on holidays, we should be exploring the prospect of reducing the number of public holidays on our calendar.

I would commend to us all, the observations of the late Archer CJ, captured in his concluding words even in his dissenting opinion in the NPP v. A-G case as follows:

“Before this action was instituted, Ghana had ten public holidays throughout the year and second only to Northern Ireland, throughout the whole world, which has eleven public holidays… Ghana has more holidays than England and Wales and Scotland, each with nine holidays. Can a developing country like Ghana afford a string of holidays which at times can be boring? I leave the answer to Parliament and the executive. The British colonial administration introduced six public holidays in this country in 1899. We have ten and I wonder what the number would be by the year 2000.”

His Lordship the Chief Justice’s words were prophetic, and his worries were not unfounded. Currently we have 12 statutory holidays, 2 more than we had when Justice Archer penned these words. We are debating adding even more days. What we should be debating, I think, is how to reduce the number of holidays. These 12 paid working days that are observed as public holidays are in addition to the paid leave days guaranteed to all workers under article 24(2) of the Constitution and numerous provisions of the Labour Act.

Let us do some rough calculation. Year 2009 has 365 days, out of which 104 fall on weekends, leaving 261 working days. Out of the 261 working days, there are 12 public holidays (assuming there are no Additional Holidays), which increases the number of non-working days to 116 and reduces the number of working days to 249. Then if we assume that the average number of leave days is a conservative 20, that further increases the non-working days to 136 and reduces the total working days to 229. In other words, all things being equal, the average Ghanaian worker will spend roughly 40% (actually 37.26%) of his or her time on a vacation, holiday or weekend this year. If you consider that the actual work-time covers between 8 and 10 hours of the day, the percentage of non-work time increases exponentially.

It is in the light of the above that I hold the humble view that some of the dates that are currently marked as holidays should be simply commemorated without subjecting the entire workforce of the nation to punishment-based and statutorily enforced rest days. For instance, we always commemorate Armistice Day. It is not a holiday, and that has no devalued that date in any way. For example, I do not see why Africa Day should be marked by rest, when work, and not more rest, is what Africa needs right now. Likewise, it is time to debate amongst ourselves whether Easter Monday, May Day, Farmers Day, Boxing Day etc. can also be commemorated without being made public holidays. Similarly, the proposed Founder’s Day or Founders’ Day, should simply be commemorated. We respect our founders, but I am pretty certain they would want us to roll up our sleeves and get to work harder to build a better Ghana, and not simply add another lazy day to sit at home and twiddle our thumbs. Further, I would suggest that we consider returning to the days when Saturdays were half-working days. If we have 40-hour working weeks now, increasing that by even 10% (i.e. an additional 4 hours on Saturday) might be a step in the right direction.

Conclusion

I conclude by commending President Mills for making quite a definite break from the past by not declaring June 4th a public holiday when he had the power to do so. Further, his non-appearance at the public commemorative events cannot pass without comment. We however cannot ignore the suggestions that the date was still commemorated with direct and indirect state support. We might never be able to quantify the cost to the nation when a major road is blocked so wreaths are laid, when our police and other security personnel are deployed to provide security for these events, when government functionaries attend these events on our time, and in government cars fuelled by our taxes, etc. etc. But I think that we ought to be grateful for small mercies. My guess is that with time, even this state support (if true) will wane, and one day, very soon, we will finally consign June 4th to its proper place, the dustbin of history, where its historically ignominious Section 34(2) cousins, namely February 24th, January 13th and December 31st currently lie.

And, this country does not need a single more holiday; we simply cannot afford it.

Yours in the service of God and Country,

Kojo Anan