James Hoth Mai, Ministry of Labour. Credit | Courtesy | File Photo

The Ministry of Labor has issued a circular clarifying that the official working hours in the country will remain 8 to 5, despite the anticipated change in time zone next week.

The Ministry advised the public and private sector to adapt to the new change.

Two week s ago, the council of ministers endorsed to change the country’s time zone by setting the clock back 1 hour, starting on February 1, 2021.

The change will be effective next Monday at 00:00 (midnight) on February 1, when clocks will be set back 1 hour to 23:00 or 11:00 pm.

In a circular issued by the Ministry of Labor, Thursday, it confirmed South Sudan has changed its official time from UTC+3 to UTC +2, which is based on South Sudan’s real location on the globe.

According to the ministry, the changing of time will not affect the working hours of both public and private sectors workers.

James Hoth Mai, says the government has no plans to change working hours, rather than adjusting the clock to the newly adopted time zone to +2.

“The official working hours will remain 8 hours; from 8am to 5pm,” James Hoth told Eye Radio.

“That means, we are giving one more hour for people to prepare for offices [but] the working hours and conditions remain the same.”

South Sudan has been operating using the old-time that was adopted in Sudan before independence.

The county is supposed to be two hours ahead not three hours, in accordance with East African time.

But horologists urged the government not to rush with the sudden change.

“In many countries [people] ought to be informed within a month that ‘next month we are going to change the time zone,” Alex Lubajo said.

However, the government spokesperson Michael Makuei has insisted that the time zone will be changed as scheduled.

He advised that everyone, including the international community and the airlines to “adjust according to what we are saying. So everybody is under the duty to adjust.”