The celebration of Ethiopian Patriots Victory Day on Friday May 5, 2006 gave almost every institution a second day off (the first having been International Labour Day that was celebrated on Monday May 1, 2006) during the last week. This was not the case with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which had a full working day on the public holiday.

The gossip corridor is filled with rumours that the Ethiopian employees of the institution are quite upset that the holiday, that was specifically assigned to celebrate the bravery of their forefathers, was not respected by the management staff. Gossip claims that they feel as though they have been wronged in not being given the day off. The hurt feelings were so bad and deep that there were even some staff members that flat out refused to come to work that day despite the fact that they knew their office would be working fully.

The Ethiopian employees, who are members of both the general Staff Union and the more exclusive eder, have caused an uproar because of this incident. Gossip claims that their patriotic and nationalistic feelings got the best of them to the point where they were willing to risk possible consequences by not showing up to their offices that day.

Perhaps the fact that all their friends and family had the day off, while they had to go to the office made them feel as though their right to celebrate the holiday that celebrates the people who are considered the forefathers of the nation.

As much as they feel entitled to having a three-day weekend, there is the fact that the United Nations (UN), the governing body in all this, had given the local employees a choice of nine Ethiopian holidays that they would like to have off. This is something that it does in all its branches across the world.

The United Nations, of course, celebrates internationally recognized public holidays, take for example May 1, which was International Labour Day, the offices of the ECA were closed. This does not unfortunately hold true for all the national holidays that are celebrated in all the different countries that the institution is active in. The UN has implemented a system that gives nine local public holidays of choice to the employees that work in different countries.

There is a committee that is set up in the different nations comprised evenly of employees and management that sit down at the beginning of the fiscal year and decide which of the national holidays of that particular nation they would like to celebrate. In the case of Ethiopia, the committee has 10 members including the chairman. After some debate and discussion, when the committee passed the final decision concerning the holidays that they would have off, Ethiopian Patriots Victory Day did not make the short list.

Despite the fact that there has been such a system in place for all UN institutions across the world for some time now, it seems that the decision not to celebrate the holiday has disgruntled many who have family members that fought in various wars.