A suggestion made by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar that government servants should work on the last Saturday in every the month to clear backlog so that the aim of Swachh Bharat, Nital Goem is achieved, seems to be a step in the backward direction. While the intention behind the suggestion is appreciated, extra hours do not always translate into more work and there is data, the world over, to back this. Parsekar is of the view that if work is completed, it would improve efficiency. This is true on paper, in reality the opposite could happen.
Firstly, government employees have been working a five-day week for over a decade now and any move to change that arrangement will upset them. What the government will end up with is 60,000 angry employees who will not be so inclined to do work. To get real work out of employees, they have to be motivated and not be forced to do it.
The five-day week is an international norm and it was adopted in the country during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi. The idea behind a five-day week is that it creates a proper work-life balance and that in turn motivates people to work better and smarter during the first five days of the week. Government servants are a different lot, but it would not be right to blame them. Instead it is the system that needs to shoulder the blame. If high-level officers cannot coax more work out of their subordinates, then they have themselves to blame.
If the government wants efficient people, then it must first stop selling government jobs. It is a known fact that a certain rate exists for every job category in the government. No person, good or bad, rich or poor, qualified or unqualified can get a job in the government without the exchange of large sums of money. When jobs are sold in this manner the wrong person gets selected and efficiency suffers. So is it right to penalise all government servants by making them work an additional day because politicians in power want to make a quick buck by selling jobs? Let the politicians work seven days a week, because they are the ones who pocket the money. Why should government servants be made to pay for inefficiency and corruption on the part of politicians?
If discipline is an issue then it is politicians who have to shoulder the blame. There exists a co-relation between efficiency and protection. More inefficient the worker, more powerful is his political mentor who shields him from any action. As long as a system like this exists, efficiency will always be a casualty and increasing the number of work hours will not help. As long as there is no law to disqualify politicians who shield government servants from disciplinary action, the cycle of inefficiency will continue.
If the government wants to build an efficient work force, which we doubt, then all government recruitment should be undertaken by an independent body which is made accountable only to the Assembly and not the departmental or political head of the government. Ministers and MLAs must be blocked from recruiting their friends, relatives and constituents. Also, if the government wants more work to be done, then he must consider recruiting young men and women into the workforce, not 45-year-olds. On the one hand the government wants more work out of its employees and on the other it wants a free hand in recruiting any Tom, Shankar and Iqbal. The two are not compatible.
