Four-day week solution to power cuts

[caption id="attachment_78767" align="alignright" width="300"] LIGHT WORK: A barber shop in Malabar makes do with cellphone flashlights when the power goes out -[/caption]

THE current methodology of spreading the electricity outage discomfort and inconvenience by multi “switch-offs” from area to area in cities and country areas are confusing and disruptive in the extreme.

Add to this the various stages that can and do come into effect. They only further exacerbate an already intolerable situation.

Since, by all accounts, power outages are here to stay, at least in the medium term, a rethink is highly advisable in order to promote productivity and economic continuance and yet still save power.

My suggestion is as follows. The country in essence assumes a four-day working week. In so doing for example, out of the nine provinces four get a total shutdown of power from 8am to 5pm on a Monday and five are shut down over the same period of hours on a Friday.

Effectively the four will have a Saturday to Monday weekend and five will have a Friday to Sunday weekend.

To compensate factories who simply can’t afford to work a four-day week, half the provinces, one at a time, shut down every ninth Saturday and the other half every ninth Sunday. This will allow for power for factories to operate over weekends.

The remaining obstacle is that labour legislation must be adjusted in order to treat “weekend” working time as ordinary time.

The result is “common knowledge” of the national picture, resulting in an ability to plan ahead with minimum disruption to the economy, relatively speaking.

The leisure industry can reconfigure its marketing strategy, factories can reorganise, retail outlets can gear for planned peaks and troughs, hospitals can arrange critical medical procedures without fear of disruption, and airlines as well as car hire businesses can reschedule accordingly.

-Conor Ward, Addo