The British government has stood by its previous rejection of creating public holidays for major Hindu and Muslim festivals on the grounds of costs, despite calls from MPs for change to reflect Britain’s increasingly diverse society.
Following a debate in the House of Commons on two public petitions that sought to make Id-ul-Fitr and Id-ul-Adha as well as Deepavali and Dasara public holidays in the U.K., the British government said it didn’t believe that these extra holidays were necessary, pointing to the costs to the economy of having these additional days, and the fact that Britain’s existing legislation provided sufficient flexibility for workers to be able to take time off. “As a government, we will continue to encourage business to respect people’s views and meet their needs,” said Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst.
Few holidays
MPs from across the political spectrum had made the case for the government to consider the introduction of these days as public holidays, noting that Britain had among the fewest public holidays in the Western world.
“I strongly support the principle of providing more public holidays — we have far too few in this country — and I strongly believe that we should base them around the major religions, to demonstrate that we celebrate all religions,” said Conservative MP Bob Blackman.
“In our much more diverse country, as it is now, we have great adherence to religious faith, particularly among the great religions... Why not recognise that fact and give everyone the opportunity to have a day off and recharge on that basis?”
Martyn Day, the Scottish National Party MP who introduced the debate on behalf of the petitions committee, noted a consultation they had carried out which found that 87% of respondents felt that not allowing time off for religious occasions was discriminatory, while 84% said they were not able to ask for time off from work or education. “There are clearly underlying issues that need to be addressed.”
According to the 2011 census, there are 2.7 million Muslims (4.8% of the U.K. population) while there are 8,17,000 Hindus (1.5% of the population).
Ahead of the debate, the Hindu Council UK had suggested the introduction of a floating framework whereby current fixed bank holidays could be exchanged for days when other religious festivals took place.
However, others had argued against the provision of the religious public holidays. The National Secular Society warned that introducing more religious public holidays would disadvantage workers by reducing their freedom to take annual leave when it most suited them, and also reduce social unity. The majority of Britain’s public holidays were secular and any additional ones should be justified on secular grounds, they said in a letter to the petitions committee.
