Refusal to move working days is completely worth evaluating, Minister of Welfare Reinis Uzulnieks (ZZS) told LETA agency.
He pointed out that the Ministry of Welfare had submitted a bill to postpone several working days, but the coalition agreed not to do so next year. At the same time, if one of the parties wants to initiate amendments to the Labor Law, which would provide for a complete abandonment of the mechanism of moving working days, it will be possible to push it.
“In other European countries, this practice is not common, so Latvia as a whole should evaluate whether to continue it,” he said Uzulniekadding that this issue is conceptually debatable.
The minister explained that currently the Cabinet of Ministers must make a decision on moving working days to the following year by July 1 every year. If the law were amended, this arrangement would no longer be necessary.
It has already been reported that the Ministry of Justice had prepared a draft of the order, which planned to move two working days next year – Friday, June 25, and Friday, November 19. The government decided to postpone the consideration of this issue.
According to the plan of the ministry, it was planned to move the working day from June 25 to Saturday, June 19, while the working day of November 19 – to Saturday, November 13. At the same time, there were no plans to move Monday, May 3, in 2027.
LM emphasizes that the transfer of working days does not change the total number of working days per year and applies to employees of institutions financed by the state budget, who work a five-day working week. For other institutions and companies, such decisions are advisory in nature.
The Ministry also states that this practice causes discussions in the society, because at the same time different procedures can exist in the state administration and in the private sector, creating confusion about the availability of services and the organization of work.
Uzulnieks emphasized that although polls show public support for moving certain working days, a broader view of work organization and its simplification should also be evaluated at the political level.
