Productivity comes from workdays, not holidays? Really?

 

This economic malaise has really brought forth the spectacular failure of the welfare state as we know it.

Portugal has just announced that it will suspend a number of holidays for at least five years. The rough translation from index.hr goes as follows:

“The decision about which religious holidays, has been reached in agreement with the Vatican. Authorities have already, in the austerity measures reduced public sector wages, increased taxes, and now they have decided on more drastic measures.

The four holidays that were abolished include All Saints Day (November 1st), Corpus Christi (60 days after Easter), Republic Day (5th October) and Independence Day (December 1st).”

The text goes on telling that this step has been taken to bring about more “government savings”. Thus is a half truth. What the story presumably meant is that due to falling government revenues due to the great many number of holidays and lack of production and savings, the government can no longer force employers to subsidizes workers for not showing up at the workplace.

The fact that the Vatican has gone along shows the gravity of the situation. Not celebrating a country's Independence Day does show that the concept of social identity is not an important factor is a nations pride, but the number of productive labor hours put into the manufacturing of goods and rendering services.

Portugal has around 15 or so more holidays in the calendar year. Croatia, my home country has 14. Remember, these figures are the so-called mandatory holidays. Only certain business activities may be completed on these days. If employers don’t give these days to employees, they can be targeted for inhumanity and possibly slapped with a fine.

The best possible thing to do is let the market state the number of labor hours completed in a given year. If you go on Mish’s web blog, you will find certain references to the so called right-to-work legislation which would implement free market principles in determining wages and labor negotiations between employer and employee. A given list from Mish’s website is a good reason why coercion is always a bad thing in the labor market:

1. Collective bargaining agreements take away the right of individuals to pursue a career of their dreams void of union affiliation
2. Collective bargaining agreements force individuals into organizations against the free will of those members
3. Collective bargaining agreements force union dues out of members who do not even want to belong
4. Collective bargaining agreements dictate what members can and cannot do with their free time.
5. Collective bargaining agreements even dictate what non-members can and cannot do with their free time!

Since I am not aware of certain privileges that Croatian union members have, this list is certainly a good guideline.     

Referring back to holiday termination dates, it is often frequent that union members impose which days they will not work, justifying the same as a social and moral norm and punishing and even threatening others who do not wish to take those days off.

No wonder that governments are toppling in Europe; you remove an incentive for a coercive system (unions) to back up another coercive system (government), you will have political turmoil. But, the fault doesn’t lie in terminating these holidays, it is because these holidays are forced upon those who want to work but can’t that causes the problem.

Croatia is no different.