Kupang wants five-day week

JAKARTA (JP): Kupang regency chief Paul Lawa Rihi has come up with a novel idea to make up for the government's decision to freeze the pay of his employees: work fewer hours.

Paul proposed a return to the five-day working week, which was tried briefly but abandoned last year reportedly because the move did not lead to improved efficiency as expected.

Administration officials could use the extra days for gardening, Paul was quoted by Antara as saying.

The central government, badly battered by the monetary crisis, has frozen the salary of all civil servants this year, although inflation officially reached 11 percent in 1997 and is expected to reach 20 percent in 1998.

"All prices of basic necessities have gone up while the pay of civil servants remains the same," Paul said.

"Even before prices increased, their salaries barely covered their living expenses. Now that they have gone up, what can they do?" the regency chief asked.

"I guess they can turn to farming to make ends meet," he said, adding that administration officials could plant crops in their gardens to make extra money.

"Let's go back to basics. We are an agricultural economy. We're all essentially the children of farmers."

Most civil servants, who are among the lowest paid professionals in Indonesia, work six days a week. The exceptions are those working for the central administration in Jakarta and the Jakarta city administration, where the trial of a five-day working week led to greater efficiency.

Paul said he had thought about turning to farming when he retired from the administration in February next year.

He said he had submitted the plan to return to the five-day working week to the East Nusa Tenggara governor and the Minister of Home Affairs. (emb)