Govt reiterates new office hours, ask all to comply: Cabinet secy

The cabinet on Sunday reminded the bureaucrats of maintaining the new office hours, from 8am to 3pm.

“According to the new schedule, one (government staff) has to come to the office by 8 am and cannot leave the office before the specified time,” Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said after emerging from a cabinet meeting, in the city.

He said the instructions have been retold.

His statement came in response to a question at a briefing at the secretariat after the cabinet meeting.

Earlier, a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.  

He said the government employees are not complying with the order to join office at 8am and many are leaving earlier.

He told a reporter they discussed the issue of noncompliance on Saturday, too.

“Yesterday, we discussed these issues and it was made clear that no one can leave before the office hours’ end. If there arises any need for any individual, he will ask his/her boss for permission. But he / she has to come to the office by 8 in the morning. And, clearly no one can leave before 3. We are ensuring this.”

The Cabinet meeting on August 22 while discussing power saving in the country decided on the new office schedule---from 8am to 3pm---which came into effect from August 1.