2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

Asia Pacific> Asia News> Content
Tuesday, June 14, 2022, 16:20
Sri Lanka gives public workers extra day off to grow food
By Reuters
Tuesday, June 14, 2022, 16:20 By Reuters

Motorists queue to buy fuel at a gas station in Colombo on June 13, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP)

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka has approved a four-day work week for public sector workers to help them cope with a chronic fuel shortage and encourage them to grow food, the government said on Tuesday, as it struggles with its worst financial crisis in decades.

The island nation, which employs about one million people in its public sector, has been hit by a severe foreign exchange shortage, which has left it struggling to pay for critical imports of fuel, food and medicine.

The island nation, which employs about one million people in its public sector, has been hit by a severe foreign exchange shortage, which has left it struggling to pay for critical imports of fuel, food and medicine

Many of the country's 22 million people have to queue up at petrol stations for hours and have been enduring long power cuts for months.

Sri Lanka's Cabinet late on Monday approved a proposal for public sector workers to be given leave every Friday for the next three months, partly because the fuel shortage made commuting difficult and also to encourage them to farm.

ALSO READ: Sri Lanka president's brother, Basil Rajapaksa, quits parliament

"It seems appropriate to grant government officials leave of one working day ... to engage in agricultural activities in their backyards or elsewhere as a solution to the food shortage that is expected," the government information office said in a statement.

The United Nations last week warned of a looming humanitarian crisis and it plans to provide $47 million to help more than a million vulnerable people. read more

Currency depreciation, rising global commodity prices and a now-reversed policy to ban chemical fertilizer pushed food inflation to 57 percent in April.

The government is in talks for a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund and a delegation is expected in Colombo on June 20. 

READ MORE: Sri Lanka's newly-appointed finance minister resigns

The United States is also ready to help, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after a phone call with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe late on Monday.

Wickremesinghe said this month Sri Lanka needed at least $5 billion to meet essential imports for the rest of the year. 


Share this story