UTV | COLOMBO – It is not necessary to issue a gazette notification to legalize the May 7 Labor Day holiday which was shifted from May 1 to the private sector, said Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena. He said this clarifying questions raised by the media as to whether the private sector is entitled to claim the shifted May 7 holiday even though a gazette notification was issued legalizing it.
The Minister further said that it is only necessary to gazette public and bank holidays.‘The gazette notification was issued on April 10, 2018, stating that the May 1 Labor Day holiday was shifted to May 7 as approved by the Cabinet of Ministers’, he said.
‘In this notification only the public sector and banks are mentioned as entitled to the shifted May Day holiday as the custom’.‘The private sector was not excluded by mistake’, the Minister said, ‘holidays pertaining the private sector is issued by the Industry and Commerce Ministry’.