It seems that my reference last week to the Emperor Constantine was, for some, like a red flag to a bull, and obscured what I was trying to say. The Government's coming law to enable "flexible work arrangements" to incorporate "all seven days as normal workdays" will profoundly and negatively affect our way of life as Jamaicans, and constitutes a profound attack upon the Christian religion.

At present, our Jamaican way of life is based on a five-day workweek followed by a 'weekend' - Saturday and Sunday - which are not normal workdays. On the weekend some people go to church, and some people go to the beach, and some people play sports, and some people spend time with their families. Some people have to work on the weekend to keep the society ticking, but this is still not considered 'normal', and as a result they are paid 'time-and-a-half' or 'double-time' as a sort of compensation for giving up their weekend.

The organisers of sporting or entertainment events plan them for the weekend because they know that most people don't work on weekends. The reason Caymanas Park makes money on Saturdays (it is not profitable, we hear, on Wednesdays) is because most people do not work on weekends and can go to watch horses race. With parents working during the week and children going to school, the weekend is the only time families have to spend together.

Profound implications

The Government needs to think this seven-day flexi-week idea through carefully, because it has profound social and economic implications.

This law is for the benefit of employers, not workers. The Government's draft 'Green Paper on Proposals for the Introduction of Flexible Work Arrangements' makes the rationale clear, and I quote:

"To cope with short- and medium-term fluctuations in demand, suppliers want to hire people who will work variable hours on demand ...

"The introduction of flexible work arrangements is considered vital to increase productivity, efficiency and competitiveness by the employers. The Government is committed to economic growth, job creation and increased investments."

Clearly, employers are persons with awesome power in this country. I wish environmentalists had the same influence with government to change the way the whole economy and society works so that the natural environment would be around for our grandchildren to experience. But no!

The destroyers

The same people who destroy the environment in the name of 'development' and 'progress' want to destroy our way of life too, and have persuaded the Government to make Saturday and Sunday ordinary working days so that employers can require their staff to work on those days.

After this law is passed, it is going to be written into all employment contracts that employers will be able to require their employees to work on any day the employer wants as part of their 40-hour workweek. I suppose you can try to negotiate for Sundays off (or Saturdays, if you are of the Old Covenant) to go to church, but you hold the blade in these negotiations. Our way of life - our freedoms, etc. - are being made subject to the demands of the economy.

It is already happening, of course. People in my church apologise for their absence because 'they have to work'. This will become the norm when the law is passed. With all seven days being normal workdays, the weekend will have been abolished. Some will have their days off on Thursdays and some on Mondays. There will be no 'best day' to put on a fund-raising concert or to play a community football match. Caymanas Park will begin to lose money on Saturdays. Families will be all together only too rarely.

National consensus must be sought on changes of such gravity, and I know that the churches will not stand by and watch the rights of Jamaicans crushed in this way.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com