Government offices open on Fridays but remain on 4 days working week
The Niue Public Service has started operating on a 5-day week.
PSC confirms that the Commission have been given the green light to start reopening all government offices on a Friday, 8.00am to 4.00pm.
In a response to BCN news queries, the PSC states “This does not do away with the 4-day working week for public servants so what this means is that departments will have to roster their staff for Fridays based on their operations and services.
It may be just 1 or 2 department staff working on a Friday depending on the nature and the demand for those services offered by each department. The staff members that are rostered to work Fridays will take another day off from Monday to Thursday. This is not a new concept and one which the Border Agencies such as Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine have previously been operating on with the Friday Air New Zealand flights.
While some departments have already started opening on Fridays, all Departments have been given 2 weeks to get organized and send to the Commission what their detailed plans will look like. It is expected that the exercise will take some time to fine-tune over the coming weeks and a trial period of 2 months has been implemented.
Despite the opening of offices for 5 days Monday to Friday, all main government business is expected to take place from Mondays to Thursdays as much as possible. During the 2 months trail period the Public Service Inspector will also be visiting some departments just to see how things are progressing.”
During the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, July 8th this year, Common Roll Member of Parliament Terry Coe had moved a motion in the Parliament stating “that in order to provide a better service, the government should allow employees to stagger the present 4 -day per week so that the Departments and Ministries are open 5 days a week.”
