Sri Lanka Announces Four-day Work Week For Public Sector Workers To Grow Crops & Save Fuel

Amid its worst financial crisis in decades, Sri Lanka has approved a four-day work week for public sector workers. But the extra off day is not for relaxation. It's rather aimed to help them cope with a chronic fuel shortage and to encourage them to grow food, the government said this week, as per Reuters.

The island nation, which employs about a million people in its public sector, has been hit by a severe foreign exchange shortage, which has left it struggling to pay for critical imports of fuel, food and medicine.

Reuters

Many have been queuing up at petrol stations for hours and enduring long power cuts for months.

Amid all this, Sri Lanka's Cabinet on Monday approved a proposal for public sector workers to be given leave every Friday for the next three months, partly because the fuel shortage made commuting difficult and also to encourage them to farm.

"It seems appropriate to grant government officials leave of one working day ... to engage in agricultural activities in their backyards or elsewhere as a solution to the food shortage that is expected," the government information office said in a statement, as per Reuters.

The United Nations had last week warned of a ¡°dire humanitarian crisis¡± in Sri Lanka and said that four out of five people in the nation of 22 million were forced to skip meals. The UN plans to provide $47m to help more than a million vulnerable people in the crisis-hit nation.

Currency depreciation, rising global commodity prices and a now-reversed policy to ban chemical fertilizer had reportedly pushed food inflation to 57% in April 2022.

The government is also reportedly in talks for a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a delegation is expected in Colombo on June 20th 2022.

AFP

Also Read: Doctors In Sri Lanka Warn That The Economic Crisis Could Lead To A Higher Death Toll Than Covid

At Least $5 Billion Needed For Essential Imports

The United States is ready to help, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said after a phone call with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe late on Monday, as per Reuters.

"During these economically and politically challenging times, the U.S. stands ready to work with Sri Lanka, in close coordination with the International Monetary Fund and the international community," Blinken said on Twitter.

Wickremesinghe had said this month that debt-ridden Sri Lanka needed at least $5 billion to meet essential imports for the rest of the year.

Reuters

Also Read: China's 'Debt-Trap Diplomacy' Believed To Be Behind Sri Lanka Crisis, Claims Report

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