Queen Jubilee holiday: Private sector will pay
God save the Queen, but where will the savings come from?
The government has generously declared a holiday to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee, but it will be the private sector that pays for this day-off.
Few would begrudge a celebration is this royal milestone, but why does it require an extra day-off work on 5 June 2012? There are plenty of existing bank holidays at that time of year when parades or street parties could be held.
The day-off represents 0.4 per cent of the working year – enough of a dent in gross domestic product to make the difference between recession and growth at present.
And the announcement – by the business secretary, Lord Mandelson – came on the first day of the 2010 big freeze when many workers failed to arrive at work. That in itself followed a Christmas and New Year break of 11 days that was preceded by another bout of bad weather that caused workers to stay at home.
Someone has to pay for these lost days and it is always the private sector. For office workers - all private individuals, whether they work for companies or the state – the jubilee day may mean squeezing a week’s work into the remaining four days without overtime. For manufacturers, however, an extra day’s holiday is a day’s output lost. If it is made up through overtime, that is extra cost – and if the overtime is actually worked on the jubilee holiday, then the point of the celebration has been lost completely.
Quite what Britain’s citizens are supposed to do on this extra day’s holiday is unclear. (The holiday is compulsory but not the activities.) One of those existing bank holiday Mondays has been moved to 4 June to create a four-day break, but there is no reason to believe people will cross the country to celebrate the day with far-away family. And the four-day Easter break is only weeks beforehand.
For many, the holiday will be a chance to shop or visit theme parks, restaurants and other places of leisure. So for much of the service sector, this will not be a holiday at all. They may receive a ‘jubilee day off in lieu’, but it makes the Queen’s big day more of a statement by government that a people’s day. The main participation of the people is to pay for it.
