The official day of rest and leave: A legal study

The Ministry of Education has required teachers to conduct online classes only on the previous Saturday, for one hour, as a trial. Rest day is the weekly time period to which an employee is entitled to cease work duties with full pay, following the exertion of workdays, and to prepare for the next day. In addition, some teachers are committed to teaching their own children and attending to their personal affairs. Assigning them to work outside official working hours will add psychological and physical fatigue rather than providing the required rest. Therefore, such a decision is taken only out of urgent and temporary necessity; even if it lasts for just one day, the Ministry and other entities may resort to assigning their employees to work on their rest day. If some argue that there is a difference between vacation days and rest days, it lies in the consequences attached to each, specifically that the rest day is not counted toward vacation leave and social insurance accruals. Otherwise, both are equal in that they constitute unpaid time off. This is not undermined by Article 24/2 of the Civil Service Law, which permits assigning employees to work outside official hours, as work outside regular hours is regulated by Civil Service Council decisions and must be compensated monetarily, in accordance with the principle of “pay for work,” which is the established practice. The Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court ruled that “…if a worker-employee is employed on those days—holidays—then this must be in exchange for double pay, which applies to what the worker receives in terms of salary and its accessories and additions, such as incentives, allowances, and additional wages, all of which apply if no additional days off are granted for those holidays during which the worker performed duties.” (Appeal No. 38681 of 2017, Supreme Court session dated 19/2/2017, published in the commentary by Advisor Mohamed Ahmed Abdelhamid – Explanation of the Kuwaiti Civil Service Law). We add that the current trend among countries is to increase, not decrease, the number of rest days for employees or workers. We conclude that the decision to assign public school teachers to work on Saturday, even if temporary, may cause anxiety for them, as well as for employees and students alike, especially if government entities adopt this approach. If the Ministry or other government entities intend to implement this decision in the future, they must provide compensation that fully redresses both material and moral damages, since it occurs outside official working hours (overtime), in application of the principle of “pay for work” and consistent with established judicial precedents.