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New Year's Eve hoped to be day off in Russia from 2016

Member of the Public Chamber who put forward the initiative says that December 31 as a work day is absolutely inefficient

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. The New Year's Eve is hoped to become a day off in Russia from 2016 following an initiative put forward by the Russian Public Chamber which will appeal to the Labor Ministry to turn the proposed bill a law.

Member of the Public Chamber Ruslan Khamzayev said that "December 31 as a work day is absolutely inefficient because workers stay in their work places until noon and waste the remainder of the work hours, trying to get home through traffic jams (on New Year's Eve), Izvestia daily quoted Khamzayev as saying in Friday's issue. If the efforts to give one more day off to employees fail, Khamzayev suggested that this might be done, "stealing" one day off from the end of long New Year and Christmas holidays, the newspaper said.

The State Duma has already approved the idea, but the proposed bill might be signed into law only by the New Year's Eve next year," Izvestia said, citing the authors of the bill.

According to an official calendar of national holidays, endorsed by the Russian government for 2015, employees will have a New Year vacation on January 1-11, the longest vacation period in Russia.