The resolution further stipulates that managers and senior officials at those state entities that remain open “for reasons of public interest” should strive to ensure their staff gain “the equivalent absence from service on a day or days set accordingly” but “without jeopardising the continuity and the quality of the services provided.”


The decision was further justified not only by reference to the many people travelling away from their usual residences at such times of the year “taking into consideration the holding of family reunions” but also adding that granting these days off had “invariably taken place over the years.”


Parliament is due to discuss the fate of the four public holidays annulled under the troika period austerity measures in January.