The Ministry of Health has decided to postpone its earlier announcement to extend the working hours for its professional staff from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., which was made last week.
Despite the official working hours for the public sector being from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the ministry had initially decided to extend the working hours by an additional two hours for professional or technical staff, citing the implementation of the new pay framework.
An internal memo by the ministry's Permanent Secretary Aishath Samiya last Wednesday, said that all employees of the ministry would be working from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. effective December 2, 2023 in accordance with the new pay framework implemented earlier in May this year.
However, in another memo circulated on Saturday, December 2, the ministry highlighted that several technical staff had raised complaints about the decision to extend working hours.
The ministry noted it would hold discussions with all relevant stakeholders regarding the matter, and added that employees would only be attending to the original working hours until a final decision is made.
The Health Ministry decided to postpone the decision after receiving petitions from several technical staff who opposed the extended working hours, and brought the matter to the attention of the media.
Mihaaru News also learned that the ministry had attempted to proceed with the working hour extension without the counsel of the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
In response, CSC had summoned the ministry's Permanent Secretary for questioning on the matter.
While the ministry earlier announced extending the working hours for technical staff, its official working hours remain according to the original working window between 8:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
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