Union wants two more public holidays for Western Australia

West Australian workers have the lowest number of public holidays in the country and now one union is trying to get us two more.

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association wants Easter Saturday and Sunday to become public holidays.

The union's WA Secretary, Peter O’Keeffe, says it's unfair the days are not recognised as holidays.

“The days that we're talking about, for example, Easter Sunday they're days of quite special significance and the fact they've been recognised by other jurisdictions but not WA is, we think, unfair,” Mr O'Keeffe said.

The union wants the government to make Easter Saturday and Sunday public holidays - instead of just Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Businesses would have to absorb the extra cost.

“The businesses in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, they've been dealing with these days as public holidays for some time,” he said.

In comparison to Western Australia, Victoria and the ACT have 13 public holidays a year, while Queensland and the Northern Territory have 12.

But Leader of the Opposition Mike Nahan says the introduction of more public holidays here will be bad for jobs.

“It will destroy jobs, particularly in two essential areas, that is hospitality and retail which we see as means to diversify the economy,” he said.

The idea will be put to the Labor state conference this weekend.