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| The Grand Turk |
| Turkey to regulate Friday work hours according to prayer time, prime minister says |
| 2016-01-06 |
| [TODAYSZAMAN] The government has been working on a draft bill that will enable public employees to observe the Friday prayer without any interruption at work, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday. "We have prepared a bill that would prevent office hours from affecting our freedom of worship without creating a loss in working hours," Davutoglu said during a group meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party). On the eve of collective bargaining negotiations last summer, the Civil Servants' Trade Union (Memur-Sen) asked the government to extend Friday lunch breaks at public institutions to two hours. The Friday prayer is a weekly duty for Muslims that lasts some 45 minutes, requiring Muslim men to gather in a mosque. According to the current regulations, lunch break at public institutions is fixed between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., or between 12:30 p.m. and 13:30 p.m., as the Friday prayer starts at 12 p.m. in winter months and at 1 p.m. in the summer season. |
| Posted by:Fred |