An Edinburgh councillor says that council staff should get an extra day of leave to make up for missing out on the World Cup bank holiday.
Employees in the council were not allowed to take the bank holiday after Scotland’s 1-0 win against Haiti in Boston due to a vote in March.
But finance convener and Labour councillor Mandy Watt has said that the council should look at doing right by staff.
Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen all gave staff a holiday on June 15, the date set aside for the World Cup bank holiday by the Scottish Government.
A number of other councils decided not to grant staff the holiday.
In a motion before the finance committee meeting next Tuesday, she states that the council should consider giving staff a floating leave day, or an equivalent.
She added that she wanted to see a report brought back to the same committee spelling out the costs that could be involved, and recommendations around the idea, to a future meeting.
Cllr Watt noted that an extra ‘floating’ leave day may be difficult for some council services, like schools, and later in her motion wrote that a ‘suitable alternative’ should be considered.
In the run-up to the vote to not grant the bank holiday, concerns were raised about interruptions to services like schools, early learning centres and libraries.
Additionally, the cost of delivering the bank holiday was identified as being in the area of £350,000.
In her motion, Cllr Watt wrote: “An additional ‘floating’ day of annual leave, rather than a fixed public holiday, would give colleagues more choice about when to use any additional leave and could reduce the impact on services.
“However, there may be services, such as schools, which would find it difficult to manage a ‘floating’ day.”
Councillors sitting on the committee will consider Cllr Watt’s motion at the meeting.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
