A memo Friday detailed the new proposal, angering many workers.

"Americans already have fewer holidays than just about any other industrialized nation, and now they're taking away more holidays," said Audry Wood, executive director of the Utah Public Employees Association.

Jeff Herring, executive director of the Department of Human Resource Management, sees it another way: Public employees will actually end up with two more hours of paid holiday hours even though they must work through two traditionally paid holidays.

Currently, state employees receive 88 hours of paid leave for the 11 state-recognized holidays. But with a 10-hour workday, employees would have gotten 110 hours off in vacation time if they got the 11 days off.

Even if the state takes two holidays off the working calendar, state employees won't work any more hours than they did last year, Herring said.

While Wood acknowledged Herring's logic, she is still upset that the state won't allow employees more choice in how they take their holidays.

The Utah Public Employees Association had suggested allowing workers to choose either to work those two holidays and get 10 hours of pay for the remaining holidays, or to take all 11 holidays off but only get 88 hours of holiday pay. The extra two hours per holiday could come from their own personal leave time.

But Human Resources told the association they don't have the ability to allow such flexibility in their payroll, said Todd Sutton, an employee representative with the association.

Other governments have avoided the holiday issue simply by giving employees 10 hours of pay for all the sanctioned holidays.

"It didn't come with any increased costs, and it's improved service to the public, productivity and morale," said Paul Isaac, assistant city manager for West Valley City, which switched to a four-day week in 2000.

But Herring said the only way to switch to a four-day workweek without increasing costs was to make public employees work two extra holidays. Some holiday-pay scenarios would have resulted in a cost increase of nearly $7 million, he said.

Sutton calls holiday pay "a tough issue to swallow."

"The hardest thing has been how they've presented it to public employees. We haven't been given the opportunity to comment on this," he said.

Herring said he is taking employees' feedback, and nothing is yet final.

"I'm fairly confident this is how we'll be heading, but we're still seeing what is the best route," he said.

smcfarland@sltrib.com

* The issue: The newly announced 10-hour, four-day workweek will mean that public employees must work on Columbus Day and Veterans Day to make up for taking 10-hour holidays instead of traditional eight-hour holidays.

* Proponents say: Public employees will end up getting two more hours of holiday pay on the new schedule than on the traditional one.

* Opponents say: There should be flexibility in how holidays are taken and that public employees should have had more say in the decision.

* What's next: Jeff Herring, executive director of the Department of Human Resource Management, said he is still taking comment and while he believes the state will implement the new holiday system, he is still willing to tweak the plan.