In a recent public debate on the MBC channel, Saudi Minister
of Civil Service Khaled Al-Araj said many Saudi government employees
only work for an hour each day and that this figure was based on
studies.
The Mayor of Madinah has recently made it compulsory for all
staff in Al-Madinah Municipality to record their fingerprints five
times a day to ensure that employees are at work and do not leave early.
In fact, many government employees leave the workplace many times every
day, citing different excuses. The use of the word “many” here is
unhelpful because this word does not indicate figures or percentages.
Let me mention some of the excuses employees give for
leaving their place of work. Some are relatively acceptable while others
are not. Some employees have children to pick up from school or have
wives or sisters to pick up from the workplace and drop at home.
However, other employees leave the workplace to go to cafés
for coffee or to go grocery shopping. I wonder why they opt to go
shopping when at work. Is this the only time they have? What about the
rest of the day, what do they do with it?
Most employees take permission to leave the workplace to
pick up their children or wives. By the way, this issue is an old one
and has been debated several times. It dates back at least six decades.
There has never been a practical solution for it. For example, there are
no school buses to transport students although we have read many times
in newspapers that a transportation company is to be set up to transport
them.
There is another solution to this problem, but it is
unlikely that it would be accepted by teachers, male or female. School
hours could be extended to 3 pm. In this case, a government employee
would not have to leave early to pick up his wife who is a
schoolteacher. In fact, this is not a new solution. It has been
suggested several times, but it has not been discussed seriously, let
alone implemented on the ground.
If both solutions are impractical, another solution should
be found. I have a simple solution: microbuses and busses owned by
citizens. The Ministry of Transport should facilitate the implementation
of this solution and stop relying solely on public transport buses,
which cannot meet the huge demand for transportation.
Author: Salim Ahmad Sahab
Source: http://saudigazette.com.sa
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