Five-day working week opposed

19 Sep, 2005

The Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA) has strongly opposed the proposal for five-day working week to reduce oil consumption in view of the rising oil prices in the international market.
The PBEA Chairman, Shabir Ahmed, said in a statement on Sunday that it would have negative impact on production to meet the export orders in time.
He said that exporters were already facing problem in meeting shipment schedule and making deliveries on time, which is one of the hallmark of success in the WTO free trade era.
He said that Pakistan still is a developing country and needs day and night production, six days a week, to complete the mega projects initiated by the government with billions of rupees.
He felt that a day's production loss would be much more in terms of revenue compared to the cost of petrol etc saved in a day.
He recalled that the country had suffered a lot in external trade in the past when the government announced two days' holidays a week. Friday being a holiday in the Gulf, Pakistan lost three business working days with countries in Far East and Middle
East which provide main markets to Pakistani goods.-PR

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