There has been talk in the State Duma for a long time that it would be nice to reduce the number of days off for employees on the occasion of the New Year holidays. In 2019, the well-deserved weekend was not taken away, but will they be canceled in 2020? Politicians are completely different.
Reasons for Change
In 2019, Russians “walked” for 10 whole days (from January 30 to January 8), since the 30th, 5th and 6th numbers fell on the weekend. Naturally, this applied only to employees of budget enterprises, since they were entitled to vacation by law. According to some politicians, economists and health professionals, such a “vacation” is very long. A long break in work negatively affects both the welfare of the citizens themselves and the economy of individual organizations, and, ultimately, the whole country.
On weekends, people need to do something with themselves, which means they spend money on entertainment. Some continue to celebrate throughout the days, travel around relatives, etc. Someone travels abroad, which flies a pretty penny. According to the Federal State Statistics Service, the average expenses of Russians for the New Year are 14 thousand rubles.
More importantly, such a vacation is most often accompanied by drinking alcohol, and this negatively affects health. According to statistics, 20,000 people die during the New Year holidays due to excessive drinking.
Opinion of statesmen
The first to openly speak about the holidays was Gennady Onishchenko. He called them mockery of health and torment that negatively affects people. Ostensibly, our body and mentality is not designed for such festivities, including winter holidays in warm countries. The Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science is sure that 2 days off (31 and 1st) is quite enough, because 27 years ago it was. Under the Soviet Union, no one rested for so long.
The New Year holidays were invented in 1993 in order to slightly appease state employees, since salaries paid poorly. Now, as deputies think, people’s life has improved, which means they don’t need to rest for a long time. Moreover, there are those who want to earn more money and are ready to go to work on holidays. Thus, the reduction of part of the weekend will not be painful.
Galina Dekhtyar - Professor, Department of Management, RANEPA, agrees that long holidays adversely affect the welfare of citizens, but does not see the need to completely cancel them. The best option, in her opinion, would be to split the vacation into 2 parts of 3 days, for the New Year and Christmas.
Together with others, the idea of canceling the holidays is supported by the LDPR. The faction leader Aleksey Didenko gives the following figures: in 10 days of downtime, the country loses 2 billion rubles. In his opinion, it would be reasonable to give people rest 31, 1 and 7. On the other days, there is no reason to walk. Instead, you can extend the May holidays, for example, make it inactive on May 10 and 11, or on May 2.
The rest of the parties side with the Russians. Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia Mikhail Shmakov generally said that while there are trade unions, the New Year holidays will not be canceled.
Mikhail Shmakov
What to expect in 2020
The initiative to reduce holidays in the State Duma has not yet been supported, and the bill has not been submitted for consideration. So far, most of the deputies are against the cancellation, and some even advocate adding the 31st to the official weekend.
Since no changes have been made to the Labor Code at present, the same days off remain for 2020.The 31st falls on Tuesday, and this working day will be reduced by 1 hour. On Wednesday, the holidays begin, which will last 8 days. You will need to go to work on Thursday January 9th. The schedule will be finally approved in the fall, so something else can add or subtract.
There is an assumption that the officials simply spared us this year, since many reforms fell on at once, and citizens are in a state of shock. If they take away the weekend, then general indignation can reach the limit. But after a year or two, the situation will cool down and it is likely that the project to reduce the holidays will return to the agenda again.
Perhaps in the future, the right to decide on the duration of the holidays will be transferred to employers, only they will need to coordinate their actions with the team. It is also likely that only 2-3 official holidays will remain, and the rest will be attached to the vacation. Workers themselves will be able to choose whether they want to take a walk or two days off for the New Year are enough for them, and the rest of the days can be used at another, more convenient time.
In 2015, the LDPR party had already put forward a similar bill, according to which according to the calendar there should have been 3 public holidays: January 1, May 9 and June 12. The rest of the days do not disappear, but go on account of the vacation, which can be taken at any time. Then the project was not supported.
Read also:
- How to relax March 8, 2020
- New Year holidays in 2020: how to relax
- How to relax in May 2020: weekends and holidays in Russia
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