Ali Al-Rasuli - Baghdad

Iraq is at the forefront of the world countries in terms of the number of official holidays and the diversity of its national and religious occasions, as well as unofficial holidays imposed by special circumstances, which cause the state treasury millions of dollars in losses - for every holiday - according to experts, as a result of the unpaid work hours in its departments and institutions.

In terms of numbers, there are 48 weeks per year, one day off every week, so the total of the weekends is 104 days per year, in addition to 22 official events per year, so the total number of holidays per year rises to 126 days, not counting the days of religious events and the urgent holidays that are declared The government, which falls within the jurisdiction of the local governments of each province, in addition to the partial holidays declared by the endowments.

Al-Ashqer: The employees only work 11 minutes per day (Al-Jazeera Net)

The burden of employees is


half the days of the year as a holiday, according to the economist Mazen Al-Ashiker, who indicated that it is divided between formal and informal, weekends, holidays, and other religious and emergency occasions.

And the public sector - according to Al-Ashiker - offers little productivity, and its employees work hours are only 11 minutes per day.

He pointed out - in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that the holiday is more beneficial in the government sector than a loss, explaining that this sector embraces nearly 5 million employees, at a time their number is supposed to not exceed a million, which constitutes a great burden on the state that recently approved the internal borrowing law And the external to pay the salaries of government employees.

As for the private sector, Al-Ashqir believes that it is not affected by the large number of holidays in the state, because it is not covered by them, in addition to being more productive, and the working hours of its employees are regular compared to their counterparts in the government sector, in addition to the fact that some workers in the private sector are not covered by the weekend.

Al-Jawahiri: Iraq loses $ 140 million for every holiday (Al-Jazeera Net)

Financial


losses and the financial losses incurred by the state as a result of the holidays, the consultant for industrial development and investment Amer Al-Jawahiri said, "The size of the financial losses for each holiday is estimated at 140 million dollars," according to official data confirming that the salaries of state employees cost the state budget approximately 4.2 billion dollars per month. .

Al-Jawahiri told Al-Jazeera Net, "The country's gross domestic product is exposed to losses from the decline in production, because the state pays this amount without receiving any service on this day."

He pointed out that "the work of the general government sector affects the work of the private sector somewhat, and causes partial disruption to the rest of the sectors."

Abdul Razzaq confirmed that the Ministry of Culture is moving towards reducing the official holidays to a maximum of 9 days (Al-Jazeera Net)

Reducing the holidays


The official holidays law adopted since 2015 includes about 126 holidays per year for the general population, as well as granting official holidays that are limited to religions, components and minorities, the number of which is 24 days, and the law has granted the Prime Minister the authority to grant emergency holidays, and the governors are granted similar authority limited to their governorates .

However, the current Ministry of Culture intends to prepare a new bill for public holidays, in consultation with cultural, political and parliamentary parties from various components of the people, to follow specific criteria in choosing these days and work to reduce them.

Through this law, the ministry aims, according to its media director Nehme Abdul Razzaq, to ​​unify official holidays and make them federal, and to withdraw the powers of governors to grant holidays in their governorates.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Abdul-Razzaq explained that the bill also aims to address the negative effects of the holidays at various levels, and reduce them in half, indicating that the holidays in the new law will range between 6 and 9 days per year, in addition to the two holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and that is different. My day off weekly.

The Ministry of Culture - according to its media director - received calls to cancel a number of holidays, such as the anniversary of the establishment of the Iraqi army on January 6, the anniversary of the declaration of the republic on July 14, and these days being limited to celebrations, noting that there is consensus that the unofficial holidays are concurrent. With some religious occasions confusing the wheel of work and education.