In conjunction with the upcoming Ramadan, which is the fasting month for the Muslims, the state government of Kedah will allow its staff to work on flexible working hours, aligned with their needs.

The head of the department will be tasked to structure and prepare the work schedule for their subordinates. In other words, different units or departments may have different working hours from each other.

Such arrangement would include finishing work earlier than usual so that they can return home, rest and prepare for breaking the fast. They can also use up their lunch hour to work instead of for break, and gets one hour extra off.

In the usual practice, the government staff gets to go back one or two hours earlier from the usual time during the month of Ramadan. Some private companies practice similar exercise, and some don’t. A number of government agencies and government linked companies allow the female workers to go back much earlier, as they will be presumably busy to handle all the cooking and other preparation for the break fast.

The normal daily working hours for the government is from 8am to 5pm.

This year’s Ramadan is expected to start on 1 September 2008, subject to moon sighting. The Hari Raya Puasa comes about 30 days after that, tentatively on 1 October 2008.