President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has pledged to allow government employees to work from home during the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Maldivians pay special attention to prayer and worship during the fasting month. Office working hours are reduced every year but there are no formal rules for working from home.
"As most people spend the last 10 days of Ramadan praying at night, in order to offer convenience to employees, a 'work from home' modality will be arranged for government employees," the manifesto stated.
The 'Good Governance' section of the manifesto launched at a campaign rally in Baa Dharavandhoo last night included important pledges related to workers:
- Introducing flexible and remote working options
- Harmonizing pay in all sectors
- Modernizing the employment law
- Creating a modern civil service
- Establishing a mechanism for assessing the quality of services from state institutions
Under a pay harmonization policy, the current administration has increased the wages of workers in the health and education sectors. If re-elected to a second term, President Solih also pledged to increase salaries for 44,281 state employees by at least 40 percent starting in January.
The good governance policies announced last night also included reforming the 2008 employment law. But details have not been revealed yet.
"The employment law will be amended to ensure that it provides rights for employers and employees, include improvements made to management systems and is based on flexible principles," the manifesto stated.
Strengthening governance
- Providing all public services from state institutions through the OneGov system
- Capping the number of MPs
- Enacting legal reforms to the civil service
- Establishing a public service to set up a modern framework for managing state institutions with operational autonomy
- Amending relevant laws to introduce flexible and remote working at state institutions based on the type of work and special circumstances
- Harmonizing pay across all state institutions
- Implementing changes to the mandates of independent institutions after a review to identify conflicting mandates and resource duplication
- Establishing a mechanism with public involvement for assessing the quality of services from state institutions
The good governance section of the manifesto also included strengthening military capacities for cyber security and air defenses.
Policy goals include improving the joint logistics of the police and military, establishing security facilities at seaports and airports, and strengthening terrorism prevention through a whole-of-society approach.
The president also pledged to ensure critical infrastructure security and cyber security through a special national security law and to establish an integrated border management system.
