With spring in full swing and the sun starting to shine again, it's time to make plans for days off and fun activities. Several holidays fall in the first half of the year, which often leads to the question: is an employee entitled to a paid day off? Although the law does not provide clear guidelines for this, collective bargaining agreements and practical solutions such as the annual hours system can provide clarity. In this article, we explore the various aspects of paid days off on holidays and what your rights are as an employee.

Legal Regulations and Collective Bargaining Agreements.

Legally, there is nothing stipulated about paid days off on holidays. This means that there is no general obligation for employers to give employees a paid day off. However, there may be agreements in a collective bargaining agreement about this. If there are no collective bargaining agreements, it is up to the employer to decide whether employees receive a paid day off, depending on business circumstances.

Challenges for Part-time Workers

Many holidays fall on a Monday, which can be detrimental to part-time employees who are routinely off on that day. The question of whether an employer must compensate a part-timer for a public holiday that falls on his or her day off has not yet been definitively answered in case law. The Human Rights Board has ruled several times that no distinction may be made on the basis of working hours. This means that employers must ensure that every employee, regardless of whether they work full-time or part-time, has an equal number of free hours proportionately.

Opinion of the Human Rights Board.

Although the opinion of the Human Rights Board is well-founded, it is not a legally binding judgment. Thus, employers are not obliged to follow this judgment, nor are judges required to do so. However, there is a real chance that judges will follow the judgment.

The Annual Hour System: A Practical Solution

To avoid discussions, employers can use an annual hours system. This involves first determining how many working days there are in a year, by reducing the total number of days per year by weekends and recognized holidays that do not fall on a weekend. This number of days is then divided by five to determine the number of work weeks. The number of work weeks is multiplied by the average hours of work per week for the employee. The result is the number of hours the employee must work that year. With this system, each employee receives, in proportion to the number of hours to be worked, the same number of holidays off.

Importance of CLA control

Some collective agreements already include the annual hours system, especially in sectors where employees are not exempt from working on public holidays, such as healthcare and seasonal sectors. So it is important to always check the collective bargaining agreement to see what is covered in it.

Compensation for Absence from Cao

If there is no collective bargaining agreement and no arrangements are made for compensation for missed holidays, the employee may be able to claim compensation for holidays that fall on a part-time day.

Source

This news item is based on an article from Salaris Vanmorgen published April 9, 2025. For more information, see Salary Vanmorgen Holiday or workday: when is an employee entitled to a paid day off?- Salary From Morning.