Private sector supports weekends change to Friday-Saturday plan
By Reza
Abesh Ahmadlou
Staff writer
The private sector of Iran has begun efforts to persuade the Parliament and state-run sector to change the country’s system of holidays into one more easily coordinated with global trade.
The head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) said on Sunday that “We expect the Parliament to consider the opinions of the private sector in determining the weekend holidays.”
Mahmoud Najafi-Arab also claimed that in the private sector, you cannot find even one person who is ready to accept Thursday and Friday holidays.
He added that we have announced in different ways that instead of Thursday and Friday, Friday and Saturday could be suitable to be adopted as weekend in Iran.
Last week, the Social Committee of the Parliament approved the increase of the official weekly holiday to two days along with the reduction of four hours of the employees’ weekly work and added Thursday to the weekly holiday of Friday.
Since world economy goes on weekend holidays on Saturday and Sundays and Iranian Parliament plans to do so on Thursdays and Fridays, a four-day gap makes Iran fall behind global markets. The private sector in Iran supports the narrowing of the gap.
Currently, Iranian labor forces work an average of 44 hours a week, more than people do in all Asian countries or member states in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a club of the world’s most advanced economies. According to the Parliament Research Center, per capita productivity in the country is low in comparison with other countries. Many experts believe the low labor productivity is the Achilles’ hill of Iran’s economy.
The problem with Iran’s different holidays is also of a religious and cultural nature. Friday is the sole regular holiday while the other red-letter days are mainly religious observance holidays that rotate every year as their lunar calendar anniversaries are recognized in the country’s official solar calendar.
Considering the economic conditions of the country, one of the most important things we must do is to pave the ground for the economic atmospheres of the country for more production.
The head of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture of Khorasan Razavi Province believes that if there is a necessity to increase the number of days off per week, the number of working hours should not be interfered with, or at least the private sector should be excluded from this matter.
Firouz Ebrahimi has said on Friday that closing on Saturdays instead of Thursdays will have a better effect on business activities of Iranians in the international arena from an economic point of view.
The decisions made by the Parliamentarians in the field of economic and social issues should be consulted with private sector, he believes.
Closing on Thursday means the disconnection of the country’s banks with the world’s banks along with the daily problems in foreign exchange transactions, Ebrahimi criticized saying that we expect Parliament to revise its recent decision.