When asked if the government would designate April 12 (Friday) as an additional public holiday as the first two days of Hari Raya Aidilfitri are likely to fall on April 10 and 11 (Wednesday and Thursday), Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim yesterday said “we must have the working spirit”.

Cuepacs, the umbrella body for civil service unions, told FMT it agreed with Anwar and said that having such additional public holidays is not in line with the government’s aspirations to increase productivity.

“There are already too many holidays,” Cuepacs secretary-general Abdul Rahman Nordin advised public sector workers.

“If civil servants need a holiday on April 12, they should take annual leave.

“Productivity will be affected if April 12 is an additional holiday.”

Rahman also said it would be impractical to get civil servants to work from home during the festive period as they would be “busy celebrating” and unlikely to get much work done.

“We need to remember that we staff government departments and we liaise with external parties. Productivity will be affected by having additional public holidays.”

Last year, Putrajaya announced an additional public holiday on Monday (April 24) when Hari Raya Aidilfitri fell on Friday (April 21).