Why not treat Austerity Fridays like it’s Christmas? Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said yesterday.
“Besides, we believe everybody needs to make sacrifice,” he added.
House Bill 17-45, the austerity measure, is expected be passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor.
It will reduce government work hours from 80 to 72 by shutting down offices every other Friday. Critical services and federally funded posts will be exempted.
Demapan said the administration wants lawmakers to identify the positions to be exempted.
He said teachers and principals can be exempted, but the administrative staff of the Public School System and even those of Public Health and Public Safety should “share the burden.”
At the hospital, he said, only those who attend to the patients can be exempted but not those in the administrative office.
Demapan noted that when the administration first implemented Austerity Fridays four years ago, many government employees “learned to like it because it gave them a long weekend.”
