Civil servants to leave en masse for Idul Fitri

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For the second year in a row, almost all civil servants will have to take holidays en masse to celebrate Idul Fitri, allowing them to enjoy a lengthy nine-day vacation.

The holiday will technically begin one working day before Idul Fitri, which falls on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, and end two working days after the official holiday. However, those will be sandwiched between two weekends, so the official leave time is nine days for the five million or so government employees.

Employees of private companies are expected to follow them, in accordance with their own schedules.

"All civil servants have to be back to work on Dec. 1, and should they desire an extra holiday they must take personal leave," State Minister for Administrative Reform Feisal Tamim said on Thursday.

Civil servants are entitled to 12 working days of leave annually.

Feisal said the long vacation would curb absentee rates that were rampant in government offices in the first and second weeks after Idul Fitri in the past.

"Those who want to take extra time have to go through all the procedures, so we will have a fixed list of those who we can count on come Dec. 1," said the minister.

Government employees who are absent without leave will face sanctions, ranging from administrative punishment to salary reduction, Feisal said.

The government introduced the mass leave during Idul Fitri and Christmas holidays last year in a bid to prevent civil servants from being away from the office during work days and boost productivity.

The longer holiday is also meant to help the domestic tourism industry recover following the Oct. 12, 2002 bomb attacks in Bali.

Long vacations are expected to encourage the government employees and their families to visit tourist resorts across the country during the holiday.

Feisal said he would summon on Monday personnel officials from all departments and ministries to coordinate holiday time for all employees.

"If we have the list of employees, we hope it will be easier to control the attendance of employees on Dec. 1," the minister said.

Besides introducing the long holiday around the Idul Fitri and Christmas holidays, the government has moved the observance of most public holidays from mid week to Mondays or Fridays, to allow people to enjoy long weekends and to give them the opportunity to travel out of town.