WE hope all our readers who are returning to work this morning do so relaxed and refreshed after their Easter break.

In many ways, Easter is what Christmas should be. Christmas has become so heavily commercialised and is so weighed down by severe expectations, it is a time of great stress for many people.

By contrast, Easter is a very pleasant time to relax. Rather than rushing around buying a mound of unwanted presents, most people settle for a chocolate egg that only costs a few pounds.

Easter, because of its long weekend, is also a family time, and because it comes at a time of year when there's the chance of some acceptable weather it enables families to get out in the open - be it the beach or the garden centre - rather than crowded uncomfortably in the front room arguing over the television.

So it is to be hoped that people are returning to work well-rested having spent the holiday with their families.

The value of the break reinforces what the various teaching unions have been saying at their annual conferences. They are calling for a 35-hour maximum working week when, on average, teachers are putting in well over 50 hours.

Teachers, though, are not alone in finding themselves working longer and longer hours. British people work the longest hours in Europe, and the common complaint among all professions is that there isn't enough time to unwind after a long week at work.

This is not simply a case of people feeling sorry for themselves because it has an affect on all of society in terms of high divorce rates and more parent-less children.

Calls for a 35-hour week, though, are unpracticable, unworkable and inflexible.

However, there is action that the Government can take - and action that would be a real vote-winner.

The US has 18 public holidays a year; Spain has 17; Germany, Austria and Portugal have 14; Japan, Norway and Sweden have 13; France, Canada, Belgium and Greece have 12. And us poor hard-worked Brits? We have only eight - two of which you have just spent at the garden centre.

There is a serious request from the British tourist industry, still struggling in the wake of foot-and-mouth, for the Government to create another Bank Holiday towards the end of the summer. The Government, though, is opposed because big business doesn't want to allow its employees to have a ninth day off a year.

Hopefully, the increased productivity of people returning relaxed after enjoying their Easter will suggest that simply chaining people to their desks - or classrooms - is not the way to get the best out of them.