For years, there was confusion as to what should happen when a public holiday fell on a weekend, until sometime in the mid-1980s, I believe, the JIS went on a campaign to educate the nation about the conditions under law which state that only when a holiday fell on a Sunday, that its celebration should be moved to the Monday following.

This information proved to be most useful, as it made forward-planning of vacation days for workers, school calendars and other time-dependent activities much easier, that is until this year, 2009. It also made the job of calendar and diary printers easier, as people would already know when all of the fixed holidays fell in a given year and would only have to calculate the dates for Ash Wednesday and Easter, which are movable holidays.

Last year, 2008, I noticed that some of the calendars and diaries being put out by various companies had Labour Day scheduled for Saturday, May 23, (as is correct under the law), and others had it for Monday, May 25, (which should not be).

Naturally, I went to the most logical source for verification, the JIS website, and was surprised to find it listing the date for Labour Day as the Monday. When I called them to query the reason for the change, I was directed to the Ministry of Labour.

Higher up

When I called that ministry, the very pleasant receptionist advised me that that was the directive that had come down from "higher up". When I asked her if she was aware that our laws prescribed that the holiday should be celebrated on the Saturday, her reply was: "Yes, but that is what they told us is to happen." Interestingly, the current JIS website has Labour Day 2004 scheduled for the Monday, as the date fell on a Saturday; however, checking back, the calendars for 2004 show that the holiday was indeed celebrated on the Saturday.

Public statement

The conspiracy theorists among us would probably say that it was changed to suit the new governor general, as, being a Seventh-day Adventist, his participation in Labour Day on the Saturday would be severely challenged. Of course the flaw in that logic is that the JIS website had the information in December, long before any indication that we would be getting a new GG, and more so, before we knew that an Adventist had been chosen.

I am now calling on the authorities to make a public statement on when is the actual celebration date for Labour Day 2009, as there are many activities, including activities on school calendars, which were scheduled from as early as August 2008 based on the very public information available at the time on the JIS website that Labour Day was to be celebrated on Saturday, May 23.

I have a printout of the public-holiday information from the JIS website from the middle of 2008 that shows this, as well as information from the Ministry of Education as to dates for mid-term break etc., and which now may have to be rearranged due to a very flippant approach to an important matter.

I am, etc.,

DEAN C. WIGGAN

wiggy_dw@hotmail.com