VIJAYAWADA: The five-day work policy for the employees of Secretariat and Heads of Department (HoD) offices had evoked a good response from the employees, but officials blame it as a cause of delay in work. Officials say that though the government gave two holidays a week, many employees are working only four days in a week with the employees signing off by Thursday afternoon and resuming to duty on Monday afternoon.
While shifting the administration from Hyderabad to Amaravati, the State government had adopted the five-day working week policy to the employees working in the Secretariat and HoD offices. Most of the employees are yet to relocate their families to Amaravati and still shuttling between Hyderabad and Amaravati.“As most of the employees made it a habit to leave the office post lunch on Friday and only return on Monday afternoon, presence of employees in offices limited to only four days a week, resulting in delay of work,” an official of the Industries Department told Express.
Stating that he was not against the government’s decision and is aware about the hardships of employees, who left their families in Hyderabad, he, however, said that the government apart from filling vacancies should increase the staff strength if it really wants to reduce the work burden.
However, leaders of employees’ unions maintained that the five-day working practice has not reduced their burden. “Despite we are going on a two-day holiday a week, we are discharging duties to reach the target and avoid delay,” an employees’ union leaders maintained.