Why not Paid Holidays instead of Closed Holidays?

In India, we have a system of closed holidays. Typically 12 days in a year. Out of these 3 are Government Holidays, viz. Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti. If as an employer you require your employees to report to work during a national holiday, you need to seek advance permission from the Labour commissioner. Now, leaving these 3, and Labour day the other 8 are religious holidays. Religious holidays of those religion which most of the workforce follow.

All of the above are also paid holidays. The employee draws a salary even though the office is closed. But typically, for a lot of these holidays, the purpose of the holiday is lost. "Kal chutti hai". "Kis baat ki pata nahin per kal chutti hai". This is the typical workforce response. Now, instead of giving a holiday for Navroz, when the majority of your workforce is non-parsee, or not giving a holiday for Id, when there are substantial number of employees who are muslims, really doesn't make sense.

At the same time not everyone celebrates Ganesh Utsav or Durga Puja. A better proposition would be to give 8 days of paid leave per employee per year. The employee can choose when to avail that. Also, the paid leave policy could be made transferable. So, if I see that I am not going to use my paid holidays for this year, I should be allowed to transfer it to a colleague who needs that holiday. Maybe for medical or personal reason. This would also go a long way in enhancing employee morale.

There are of course some shortcomings for this idea:

1. If your work depends on the work of others, this system may not work. If the critical operator is on leave, it doesn't make sense for the rest to be at work and not do anything productive. But at the same time, this ensures that the system becomes process dependent and doesn't remain person dependent
2. For working mothers, this may not be a very great option. Schools will not and can not have the concept of paid holidays. So, schools will choose those 8 days to close. Working mothers will have to make arrangement for baby-sitting on those days
3. If certain religious holidays (like Holi) lead to large scale disruption of normal city life, then this concept would not work. Most people would choose to stay away from work rather than venture out and risk getting assaulted by revelers

But the advantages of this, other than the ones already mentioned would be:

1. This takes care of every religious denomination and also the atheists. No one feels excluded as every employee can choose which festivals to celebrate and which not to. This will serve as a morale booster
2. Typically it has been observed that when the festivals are on a Thursday or Tuesday, there is a marked decrease in attendance on Friday and Monday. This will help in curbing that trend
3. A longer vacation period for employees

Well, the merits and demerits are open to debate. Nor would this system suit all workplaces. But at the same time, this idea needs to be thoroughly examined before either implementing or rejecting it.