Employees of the Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) have expressed their dissatisfaction over having to work for more than four hours during the fasting month of Ramadan.

According to MPL's Human Resources and Administration Department their employees who work in shifts need to complete eight hours, even in Ramadan, and employees who has set working sessions will need to complete six hours.

MPL has distributed their employees into three shifts:

Morning shift from 08:00 to 16:00 hours

Evening shift from 16:00 to 00:00 hours and

Night shift from 00:00 to 08:00 hours.

Staff who do not work under shifts recquire to clock in at 09:00 am and their duty concludes at 15:00.

While MPL had in previous months of Ramadan allocated more than four hours for their shift staff as well, MPL had notified their staff that they will receive overtime allowance for working over four hours.

An employee at MPL said that their main concern revolves around the fact that they are obliged to work over four hours and added that they would not have any issues with working overtime if it was not mandatory to work over four hours like in previous years.

RaajjeMV is yet to receive a word from MPL on the matter.

While it is normal procedure in state companies and civil service to limit working hours to four during the fasting month, it is not mandatory within the law. 

Although most civil service employees have to work for a maximum of four hours, government operated companies and private office employees mainly have to work six to ten hours during Ramadan.