Govt to review public holidays

By Jonathan Angura THE Government is reviewing the number of public holidays because they are too many and unproductive, the labour, gender and social development minister, Mrs. Janat Mukwaya, has said. She said the holidays tend to make investors relocate to neighbouring countries with fewer public holidays. "We have so many public holidays. They are a nuisance and we in government are going to review them," Mukwaya said. She was on Tuesday meeting the management of African Textile Mill (ATM), Mbale at the factory to address the grievances of the workers against their management. Mukwaya said, "Some of the things we do are not realistic. We have Saturdays and Sundays on top of public holidays but look at the peasants, they have no Saturday or Sunday." She said Kenya has eight public holidays which are affordable compared to Uganda's twelve. ATM workers in their memorandum, complained of poor sanitary facilities, working without pay on public holidays, harassment and lack of protective wear at work. ATM management was led at the meeting by its chairman, Mr. JV Patel. Mukwaya, advised the ATM management to motivate the workers in order to improve productivity. At one point during the meeting, Mukwaya threatened to close the factory when Patel told her that workers could not be represented at the meeting because they had no workers' union although it was being formed. Ends.