Sudden declarations of public holidays

Here in Malaysia, according to the Employment Act 1955, Part 12, Section 60D(1), every employee is entitled to 10 public holidays, 4 of which must be (Agong's Birthday, Merdeka Day, Sultans Birthday & Labour day) the other 6 is at the discretion of the employer.

However, in the case of ungazetted holidays, it gets rather ambiguous.

This has happened before on 21 Oct 2010, applicable for Melaka only, when the Chief Minister declared only the day before a public holiday in conjunction with Melaka Maju Jaya, or Melaka as a developed state. See http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/21/nation/7269662&sec=nation

Oops - it happened again. This time, on a nationw-wide scale. The Prime Minister just declared 31 Dec 2010 as yet another public holiday, after Malaysia won the AFF-Suzuki Cup (for soccer). See http://football.thestar.com.my/story.asp?file=/2010/12/29/football_latest/20101229142556&sec=football_latest

The difficulty of accommodating such declarations made on with less than 24 hours notification is that to run a factory, whether or not to work or not to work, requires planning to be made well in advance.

If Production were to run, arrangements have to be made for operator transport, shift allowances and coverage, canteen support, and so on. On the other hand, if Production were NOT to run, the sudden loss in output against the plan committed earlier to the customers has to be accounted for, resulting in missed line items or on-schedule delivery.

Sigh, any experts on Industrial Relations or relevant legislation out there with some sound advice?

UPDATE [8.31AM GMT+8] : Yup, confirmed. See http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/12/30/nation/7704602&sec=nation

UPDATE [10.27PM GMT +8] : Hmm, as highlighted by fellow Blogger, Saint (who's blogs at http://saintsthesaint.blogspot.com/), another piece of legislation to take into consideration, the Holidays Act 1952 (section 8), states:-

Minister may appoint special days to be observed as bank or public holidays
8. The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette or in such other manner as he thinks fit, appoint, in respect of Peninsular Malaysia, or the Federal Territory or, after consultation with the State Authority, in respect of a State, a day to be observed as a public holiday or a bank holiday in addition to, or in substitution for, any of the days mentioned in the Schedules and thereupon this Act shall, in Peninsular Malaysia, or in the Federal Territory, or in the State in respect of which a day is appointed to be observed as a holiday as aforesaid, be applicable to such day in the same manner as if the said day had been mentioned in the First Schedule or the Second Schedule, as the case may be.

Update [12.34am, 13 Jan 2011] : Just to cite some real case examples:-

1. My niece was to attend her primary school "orientation" on that fateful Friday. Now, the ones who were really troubled were the school teachers, who had to answer numerous phone calls from parents who wanted to know if the event was still on or not.

2. My brother-in-law had an urgent shipment to send out, which was only ready for shipment on Friday, due in Hong Kong on Tuesday the following week. Unfortunately, the courier services were off on Friday (AFF day?), Saturday (New Year's Day), Sunday (self-explanatory). Therefore, the shipment could only go out on Monday. Had it been made known earlier that Friday was to be a holiday, he could have committed a later ETA date to the recipient in Hong Kong.

3. Somebody was on holiday and drove all the way to Penang on Thursday. Friday Holiday, shops were closed. Saturday Holiday, shops were closed. So, came back to Melaka empty-handed. (Guess who is this?).

Luckily none of us made any medical appointments on Friday, but for those who did, I guess that they had to reschedule their appointments (if you have tried to make one at a Government Hospital before, you will know sometimes we have to wait nearly a month for our turn, since there are so many people already booked to see the doctor).

The rational thing to do is to declare a public holiday perhaps in the following week. That way, people would have time to amend their schedules and plans accordingly.