It was a strategy used to keep govt employees employed rather than face layoffs. The trade off was that they would work fewer days and get paid for days worked. Everyone was up in arms over these “Rae days” off for the government. The alternative being a lot of people would have just straight up lost their jobs. This kept people working and kept things running. But when you talk to people about the NDP the argument always comes back to “ do you want to go through Rae days again? “ the answer is yes if it lets people keep their jobs.