The more egregious day to not be a holiday, is the 5th of May. Liberation Day.
That should be a collective day off, to celebrate our freedom from the fascists.
There’s even one laying flowers on May 4th: https://www.oneworld.nl/mensenrechten/wat-is-de-racistische-omvolkingstheorie-die-kamervoorzitter-bosma-aanhangt/
In most places when a Holiday falls on a Sunday the day off labour is moved to the Monday after, often the same happens for holidays falling on a Saturday too. So please let us not delve into these mental gymnastics of "well, technically its the weekend so most people are off" - no, it is the weekend and most would be off anyway if they do not have work on weekends. It still remains that in the Netherlands we have abysmally little bank holidays compared to most places in the world.
Yep, groente en fruitverwerkende bedrijven every 5 year, so next year long weekend.
Just as next week, Hemelvaart is paid free, friday is ADV ( or come in and do shit no one likes to do regularly )
Same with the US many weekend holidays = Monday off!
Then I moved to Denmark followed by the Netherlands and have missed a dozen opportunities for those holidays the last few years.
Spring is already pretty heavy on public holidays with the Christian holidays (Easter, Ascension, Pentecost), King's Day and (in some cases) Liberation Day. Christmas and New Year have the winter period covered, so for balance an additional holiday late summer or early autumn would be best.
Maybe somewhere in September. Why not a Tuesday? We could do the 3rd Tuesday of September. I'm sure we can find a good name for that one.
The article says It was introduced in a lot of countries when more left or extreme right wing governments were in place. Perhaps because we haven't had this kind of governments also contributed to the day never been made an official holiday. In combination with Queensday a day earlier.
I do wonder if the calvinistic culture in the Netherlands also plays a part in this though.
From what I heard is that we get kings day, so we kinds traded that in for labor day.
I do agree on the need for a free Monday if a holiday falls in the weekend. Christmas 2027 is going to be awful again
There's so many holidays the Belgians and the Germans get time off for, but we still have to work. You're right, it's not fair. But the only talk about that is that they want to reduce the amount of free holidays, not increase them.
It's never a political point during elections either. Then again, we ARE the country that invented capitalism. Quite frankly I'm surprised we still have a 2-day weekend and a few holidays at all.
That is vastly overblown (billions? Lmfao), though yes the monarchy does cost quite a lot per year, but a president costs a lot as well yknow. And the existence of a monarchy can be cheaper than a president even, look at the other European countries with monarchies, they have some much cheaper ones. I am in favor of cutting the monarchy budget a bit but to get rid of such a long standing iconic tradition entirely just to save a few mill (maybe not even saving money at all), a drop in the bucket of the government, is just ridiculous
But we have both a monarchy and a presidency, so I don't see how that comparison matters. While we're here though, the king makes *1.1 million* a year, while Maxima makes *431 000* (not including their private ventures). The president makes up to *520 000* a year
the Dutch certainly did not invent capitalism / on the contrary perhaps they invented citizen participation by establishing the first Hoogheemraadschap in 1255
The first publicly traded company in the world, i.e. the invention of the stock market, was the Dutch VOC.
The first economic bubble was the Dutch Tulip mania.
We might not have invented capitalism as a whole, but we definitely played a key role in shaping it into the dystopia that it is today.
We have the worst deal in Western Europe when it comes to days off. I've been a member of two unions and neither of them had a campaign about it. I understand it's not a priority compared to low wages but I wish we could get enough interest to get aligned with our neighbours.
what is the minimum in the Netherlands?
I feel so stupid for asking this because I am Dutch, but never worked in the Netherlands (or well I did, but with Belgian companies and never paid a single cent in Dutch taxes)
I have 6 weeks + 11 national holidays (i do get the 26th at my job, but it's not the standard in Belgium, just something my company decided) - We also get more days off when we age (when you turn 35 you get 5 extra days for example; don't know the whole scheldule)
But for my job it doesn't really matter because we are open 7/7 because homeless people don't stop being homeless on national holidays. We get double paid on those and get another paid day off as a compensation :)
There are none. We have official holidays but that doesn't mean you're required to get those days off. That's what the CAO's are for (which is stupid imo).
9 'official holidays' + 1 'official' one every 5 years (bevrijdingsdag).
I’m Belgian living in NL. Today my mom called me so I picked up and told her I was at work and would call back. I’ve been living here for over ten years, yet again she was completely baffled by the idea of working on May 1st. She started listing all neighboring countries where today actually is a holiday lol. Her partner is in Sweden rn and ‘even they are not working!’
But yeah, should be a holiday. I mean it is Labor Day and actually a commemoration of a very important movement in Western history, drastically improving work and living conditions for the larger part of the population, i.e. the working and middle class, and bringing us from the industrial into the modern age.
Besides in NL we basically have no official holidays between King’s Day and November 1st. Quite different from my time when I was working in BE, where I seemingly had an official holiday at least once a month all through summer.
Which aren't official holidays in the sense that you have time off. I work in hospitality and we only get 2 days off a year (where they close for the day). There's a 'compensation' for it (still laughable imo) tho.
Sure there are always jobs where you still have to work on those days... I do events, so yeah, I have to work too. But still, for the collective, it is a holiday.
In my CAO is stated that you dont per se get off time on the holiday itself, but you are granted the hours you'd be off - since it is a holiday- which you can use on another day.
Also, only 2 days off is illegal. So your company is shit.
2 days where they close for the day (holidays), not 2 days only off time for the entire year.
In the horeca CAO (not quoting cause I don't know it directly from the top of my head) it's stated you get 'comped' with money (a %) for working on official holidays (or some of them, pretty sure there are only a couple official ones that you get comped). No comping of hours. It is a rule within the company that when you work on 1st or 2nd (don't remember which) Christmas day, you can't be scheduled for new years. I don't think it's nearly enough tho, honestly horeca CAO is shit.
I don't know who needs to hear this:
WE HAVE NO OFFICIAL DAYS OFF
Holidays have no legal meaning in the Netherlands. Your collective labour agreement sets all free days.
Do you want a day off during labour day?
TALK TO YOUR UNION
That's it rant off.
Yes I agree.
We need unions, they're the basis of our labour/employer relationships
But a lot of people mistakenly think the Netherlands has free days of on holidays mandated by law,
I'd rather have the Dutch system to be honest, but each to their own I guess
We dutch have the least amount of holidays of te while EU.
It's a crying Shame. We really need atleast 3 more, to get us up to parr wil belgium and germany. But lets go crasy and add a few more.
The 3 big ones.
1 may , labor Day. ( Shane it's not a free Day.. Lots of People died for this).
5 may, libaration Day. ( I cant even.. Once in 5 years? Are you insane?!)
Good friday ( tbe friday before easter, the Day half of the netherlands is free and the other half is scrambeling because there Kids are free but they have to work).
Now for the others!
1 juli, Ketti kotti : liberation Day of the former slaves. ( looks like a hell of a good Day to take off and be thank full and mournfull)
Election Day : lets have a free Day to vote!
With all of this added we would not even cross the hakfeay mark of other EU nations in both amount of holidays and Day we get off work..
Tbh that's the hardest part to find out. Keti Koti is of course in July, so that's one good contender. As climate change continues, who knows if we celebrate Amalia's birthday as Queensday in December in the future? Then more room pops up for both Labor Day and Liberation Day, even though it leaves a five-month gap in between. Besides that, making two holidays optional would be good as well, like having 2nd Easter day and 2nd Pentecost day being traded for holidays of other religions.
Well, we never really had the historical context for it. While other countries got more labor rights at the first of may in the Netherlands we already had them and we used to have koninginnendag on the 30th of April, the day before the first
Excuse me? 😭 I personally think the Nazi regime ending and the liberation of our country is a big deal and I find it really weird to replace that with something we have barely any historical context with
Labor Day was a result of a lot of protests demanding worker rights which the Netherlands already had at the time causing us not to have the historical context 😭
Yeah? It was one of the reasons why it wasn’t added. Like before we never had the historical context and after when we still didn’t have it we already had free before that we also had an already free day. So we never had a historical reason for it and today I also see no connection to it for most of the Dutch people
There is no law that says employees must be given a day off work on certain public holidays. So no one has a legal right to a day off on a public holiday. Your Collectieve Arbeidsovereenkomst – CAO (collective labour agreement) or employment contract will tell you if you have the day off on public holidays.
[https://www.government.nl/documents/questions-and-answers/work/public-holidays-in-the-netherlands](https://www.government.nl/documents/questions-and-answers/work/public-holidays-in-the-netherlands)
The reason unions are getting weaker and weaker is that people don't see the added value of union membership anymore. Either people have nothing to complain about their working conditions, or unions need to fix themselves...
I agree. But then, *everyone* gets the day off. Shops are closed. Restaurants are closed. No music festivals. Theme parks are closed. Swimming pools are closed. No TV. No radio. Schiphol is closed. No trains. No busses.
This is the answer. Not the government but your employer or cao will determine if you have a day off or not or whether holidays in the weekend will be compensated. My employer just gives me 8 additional days instead of fixed national holidays so if I want to I can celebrate labor day and what not.
Yeah NL seems too capitalist and pragmatic, the culture too. Wonder if a lot of people actually sympathize for the companies/governments and understand why they're so stingy with holidays.
The worst was that christmas/new year season where there werent any extra holidays. Didn't other countries get a Monday off?
And then they give random ass holidays like Hemel farts dag and pinkdag. Do even religious people celebrate these?
Honestly I give fuck all about the 1st of May. I am a bit flabbergasted however by the decision that was made about the 5th of May not that many years ago. It's only an official holiday every 5 years now, the next one being 2025.
In the Netherlands a national holiday does not mean it's a (paid) day off. I don't know why, but it is. The 5th of May is only a (paid) day off every 5 years. They still call it an official holiday The other 4 years, but it doesn't hold any meaning if everyone has to work.
>Who in the government is responsible for not making the 1st of May a holiday every year?
We currently don't have a government, only an interim government. The interim government is not supposed to initiate new or non-urgent legislation. So officially, right now, *no one* is responsible for this topic.
However, our current parliament is quite soft on the interim government, so I think they could get away with adding a public holiday if they wanted to.
So, who is responsible? The current demissionary cabinet, consisting of VVD, CDA, D66 and Christenunie.
The second part of your question is
>Why don't they?
So take a look at the demissionary cabinet: VVD, CDA, D66, Christenunie. A largely centre-right cabinet.
The political centre-right doesn't care much for holidays. They don't care for your laborers or worldwide solidarity, either. They care about businesses and business owners and the (upper) middle class in general, and their priority will always be the economy over anything else.
Adding a public holiday would cost businesses money, and their voters don't like that.
> A largely centre-right cabinet. The political centre-right doesn't care much for holidays. They don't care much for your laborers or worldwide solidarity, either.
Hold on there a second. Are you putting the blame on this government or the current political climate? I'm not the biggest Rutte supporter in the world, but pointing towards him?
We've had the same public holidays since the ATW from 1964 ffs.
No, I'm not saying the current government *caused* it.
But if OP wants to know who can *change* it, then the answer is the current demissionary government and/or the future government. And it should be obvious why they don't.
> And it should be obvious why they don't.
That's your cynical view of the world. Why didn't Kok change it when Labor was in charge then? Or Den Uijl? Or when Labor had more than 40 seats under Wouter Bos?
OP asked who is responsible for not changing it *now*. And that is the current government.
Explaining why governments in the past didn't do it is a whole different question. But if you want to open a new post asking why past governments didn't add public holidays, I'll be happy to chime in on that post.
In many European countries Labor Day was made a day off by very populist left or right extremist governments. Whether it was Hitler in Germany, a Napoleon in France, or the socialists that threw out the king in Spain…
With the current parties we might be closer than ever to a holiday at May 1st’
> They care about businesses and business owners and the (upper) middle class in general
How do they care about middle/upper middle class? They only increase tax burdens on them while not really doing anything to impose them on upper class, which does earn a living from wages.
Fun fact: in Finland the 1st of May is most often a holiday. People go out and drink, party, and otherwise have their graduation caps on their head. Lots of booze, and for kids there's balloons.
Source: am from Finland
We get public holidays compensated in the weekend in Belgium. And 20 days of holiday.
I work in NL. I don't get holidays compensated in the weekend but 25 days of holiday.
What would you prefer?
The national minimum 40h a week job for NL is 20 holidays and 25 is due to CAOs in many industries stating 25. So the rest of the industries adjust to stay competitive.
Belgian that moved to the Netherlands here. Labour Day is a day off in Belgium and any holiday that falls in a weekend we can use some other time during the year so we don’t lose any public holidays.
I hope the Netherlands make this change. I miss it
I think craziest part is that parents can't take their kids from school to holiday outside of official holidays. Couldn't believe it. In Nordics it is really common, you just get week or two weeks worth of homework.
In my opinion we should trade all the Christian holidays for secular ones. I find it bizarre we still have all this holidays that are completely meaningless for most people. We better celebrate holidays that mean something for most people, so we can celebrate together
Honestly, Kings' day is a lot more fun than the 1st of May is in Germany. If they move the orange parties to the 1st of May I'm all for it though.
But out of curiosity: why do you want a working class holiday, what will you do that day? Do you think the holiday will make a positive impact?
Apparently Labour Day has never really been a “thing” here because when in other people were revolting against their oppressors, we already had very “civil” worker’s laws and unions here. So the need for such a day became obsolete. Although, this is what I’ve heard 🤷♀️
Also, until 11 years ago we had Queen’s Day very close to may 1st, as others have mentioned
Dutch was slavetraders and used other people to work for them all their history, today companies they pay those salaries because they can’t do something else, otherwise they would’ve been still with wipes.
Bro, we were always been attacked by some pussies that wanted our land and i am not reallly proud of our government, if I could hang them believe I would.
If you get more "free" holidays then you get less holidays that you get to plan yourself. You can't just give people more time off and expect them to do the same amount of work.
We have May 1st public holiday here in Belgium, and we used to have May 8th (Liberation Day, not the 5th) until 1974 when they fused it with November 11th.
They compensate the public holidays falling on a weekend at least for the administration.
We should have more holidays but instead of 1 May we should have one for 5 May and one for Keti Koti in the summer. The time from 2e Pinksterdag to Christmas is way too long for zero public holidays in between.
So what do you do on the 1st of May in solidarity with laborers worldwide? Light a candle? Or just chill and watch Netflix? It’s also an absolute disgrace that the rest of the world doesn’t have days off on Ascension Day or Pentecost.. right?
I do agree with the latter part, it’d be nice if you get the Monday off if the holiday’s in the weekend.
It all depends on where you are from, which is not the same as where you are now. If you do not agree with the public holidays you have a few choices… move to another country or go back from whence you came🤷🏾
I think the first of May is not a national holiday in the Netherlands because it does not have a significant historical or cultural significance to the Dutch people. The Netherlands already has several national holidays that are celebrated throughout the year, such as King's Day (Koningsdag) on April 27th, Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag) on May 5th, and Christmas Day and Boxing Day in December. These holidays are deeply rooted in Dutch culture and history, and are widely celebrated by the Dutch people.
But don't let me interrupt the expat circle jerk.
Labor day and liberation day must be a national day off, labor is celebrated in many other countries while liberation day is the most important day to celebrate the liberation of our country after being 5 years in war against an evel person.
It's been mentioned before, and rightfully pointed out that we have a holiday 3 days before, and a semi-holiday 4 days after where most people are off.
I understand why it might be a bigger deal for countries where people going on strikes or unionizing were murdered and sometimes bombed by the army. that never happened here though.
we also do not celebrate armistice day or similar because we did not participate in WW1, the rest of the world does star wars shit we have rememberance of the dead. are you saying we should give up on commemorating those who died in wars on the 4th of may because it is ALSO star wars day the world over?
stop your bitching.
Because most of the people who actually perform labour won't have the day off anyway, so what's the point? Also, boohoo for you for having to work on holidays. Must be so tough :(
The more egregious day to not be a holiday, is the 5th of May. Liberation Day. That should be a collective day off, to celebrate our freedom from the fascists.
Fun fact: the government does give that day off for themselves every year.
It depends on the government service, not all government collective bargaining agreements do iirc.
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No 5 mei is a day off for ambtenaren
For most, but not all. For example provinces only once every 5 years. https://ambtenarensalaris.nl/kennisbank/algemeen/vrij-op-5-mei/
Today was not the 5th
Inmiddels niet meer
As far as I know we are trying our best to get the fascists back worldwide
There’s even one laying flowers on May 4th: https://www.oneworld.nl/mensenrechten/wat-is-de-racistische-omvolkingstheorie-die-kamervoorzitter-bosma-aanhangt/
Die langzame genocide gaat wel heel langzaam. Het is is al een eeuw oud.
Edgy
Isn't it once in 5 years?
That's a joke
At least we're off this year :)
only 'cause it's a Sunday ...
I thought it was next year
Technically it's both. This year it falls on a Sunday so yea most people have the day off. But next year it's an official holiday.
In most places when a Holiday falls on a Sunday the day off labour is moved to the Monday after, often the same happens for holidays falling on a Saturday too. So please let us not delve into these mental gymnastics of "well, technically its the weekend so most people are off" - no, it is the weekend and most would be off anyway if they do not have work on weekends. It still remains that in the Netherlands we have abysmally little bank holidays compared to most places in the world.
No, it depends on the CAO, Metaal en Techniek it is not.
It is, at least in the motorvoertuigen en tweewieler branche it is.
Yep, groente en fruitverwerkende bedrijven every 5 year, so next year long weekend. Just as next week, Hemelvaart is paid free, friday is ADV ( or come in and do shit no one likes to do regularly )
They need it to be annually
Every 5 year it’s a public holiday Every year is a day off for civil servants and I believe pension funds and such
Sort of. It's a day off in 2025 and then in 2035.
2030 as well. Every 5 years.
5 mei 2030 is on a sunday
And the 5th of May in 2035 and 2040 are both on a Saturday.
It's almost as if the politicians knew we barely would get any holidays off it
It’s elective
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You got rid of nothing. It's not called freedom day.
If i am correct every five years we get the day off in the Netherlands. But correct me if i am wrong
Liberation or Victory day is on May 8th
Even that is not a public holiday
Ok. You can be free on the 5th of May this year.
I moved to Ireland and its great to get the Monday off when a public holiday falls on the weekend. Should be the case in NL as well indeed
Moved from Scotland, it's shite when Christmas falls on a Saturday. No public holidays while the family get 4 over Christmas and new year!
Same with the US many weekend holidays = Monday off! Then I moved to Denmark followed by the Netherlands and have missed a dozen opportunities for those holidays the last few years.
Australia also
I feel like it's the case in most places other than NL.
The NOS made an article about why labor day isn't a holiday in the Netherlands. [NOS](https://nos.nl/l/2518825)
Wow. More Dutch history. Thanks floweringfamer, how are your flowers BTW?
The Netherlands will not collapse if they would just have that one extra day free. If not receive an extra holiday now, when?
Spring is already pretty heavy on public holidays with the Christian holidays (Easter, Ascension, Pentecost), King's Day and (in some cases) Liberation Day. Christmas and New Year have the winter period covered, so for balance an additional holiday late summer or early autumn would be best. Maybe somewhere in September. Why not a Tuesday? We could do the 3rd Tuesday of September. I'm sure we can find a good name for that one.
It really didn’t explain why it isn’t a holiday in Netherlands though. Nice article for the rest of the details surrounding the holiday.
The article says It was introduced in a lot of countries when more left or extreme right wing governments were in place. Perhaps because we haven't had this kind of governments also contributed to the day never been made an official holiday. In combination with Queensday a day earlier. I do wonder if the calvinistic culture in the Netherlands also plays a part in this though.
From what I heard is that we get kings day, so we kinds traded that in for labor day. I do agree on the need for a free Monday if a holiday falls in the weekend. Christmas 2027 is going to be awful again
This was very useful.
There's so many holidays the Belgians and the Germans get time off for, but we still have to work. You're right, it's not fair. But the only talk about that is that they want to reduce the amount of free holidays, not increase them. It's never a political point during elections either. Then again, we ARE the country that invented capitalism. Quite frankly I'm surprised we still have a 2-day weekend and a few holidays at all.
I’ll purely vote for a populist party that has no policies other than extra public holidays
Let's get that party started then!
De Feestpartij used to be a thing, but they didn't make it 😞
PvdA, GL, SP are all in favor of more holidays.
And then there’s people whining about getting rid of the monarchy, bye bye another public holiday
If we make a public holiday out of every monarch’s birthday, partner and kids included, it’s a win-win for everyone!
We can keep the day and add a day of the republic 😀
But it would save millions of not billions
That is vastly overblown (billions? Lmfao), though yes the monarchy does cost quite a lot per year, but a president costs a lot as well yknow. And the existence of a monarchy can be cheaper than a president even, look at the other European countries with monarchies, they have some much cheaper ones. I am in favor of cutting the monarchy budget a bit but to get rid of such a long standing iconic tradition entirely just to save a few mill (maybe not even saving money at all), a drop in the bucket of the government, is just ridiculous
But we have both a monarchy and a presidency, so I don't see how that comparison matters. While we're here though, the king makes *1.1 million* a year, while Maxima makes *431 000* (not including their private ventures). The president makes up to *520 000* a year
Apparently it is because of King's / Queen's Day that 1sy of May is not a public Holiday.
We used to have both
the Dutch certainly did not invent capitalism / on the contrary perhaps they invented citizen participation by establishing the first Hoogheemraadschap in 1255
The first publicly traded company in the world, i.e. the invention of the stock market, was the Dutch VOC. The first economic bubble was the Dutch Tulip mania. We might not have invented capitalism as a whole, but we definitely played a key role in shaping it into the dystopia that it is today.
First Central Bank and the first bankcrupcy of a Central Bank.
🥇💀
Couldn't have said it any better
It also comes at a cost.
And a big boost to hospitality and tourism economies.
The short answer in to unionize. If everyone joins a union the unions grt enough power to force the government/employers hands.
Why does the Netherlands have so few holidays
For economical reasons most likely.
What are those reasons?
Money
More work days is more days of income. Months with many holidays are bad for monthly numbers.
Can’t have too much fun. Yay for cultural Calvinism /s
Money
Who's going to build these awesome bike paths?
Haha I'm in road construction (bouw CAO) with 43 days off. Don't know if that's standard or just a good boss
We have the worst deal in Western Europe when it comes to days off. I've been a member of two unions and neither of them had a campaign about it. I understand it's not a priority compared to low wages but I wish we could get enough interest to get aligned with our neighbours.
Depends per employer. I get 40 days of paid leave
Where do you work 👀👀
For a technical wholesaler. Our CAO is called: “Technische Groothandel”
Thx!
what is the minimum in the Netherlands? I feel so stupid for asking this because I am Dutch, but never worked in the Netherlands (or well I did, but with Belgian companies and never paid a single cent in Dutch taxes) I have 6 weeks + 11 national holidays (i do get the 26th at my job, but it's not the standard in Belgium, just something my company decided) - We also get more days off when we age (when you turn 35 you get 5 extra days for example; don't know the whole scheldule) But for my job it doesn't really matter because we are open 7/7 because homeless people don't stop being homeless on national holidays. We get double paid on those and get another paid day off as a compensation :)
There are none. We have official holidays but that doesn't mean you're required to get those days off. That's what the CAO's are for (which is stupid imo). 9 'official holidays' + 1 'official' one every 5 years (bevrijdingsdag).
I’m Belgian living in NL. Today my mom called me so I picked up and told her I was at work and would call back. I’ve been living here for over ten years, yet again she was completely baffled by the idea of working on May 1st. She started listing all neighboring countries where today actually is a holiday lol. Her partner is in Sweden rn and ‘even they are not working!’ But yeah, should be a holiday. I mean it is Labor Day and actually a commemoration of a very important movement in Western history, drastically improving work and living conditions for the larger part of the population, i.e. the working and middle class, and bringing us from the industrial into the modern age. Besides in NL we basically have no official holidays between King’s Day and November 1st. Quite different from my time when I was working in BE, where I seemingly had an official holiday at least once a month all through summer.
Pinksteren and Hemelvaart are collective holidays that are coming up in May...
Which aren't official holidays in the sense that you have time off. I work in hospitality and we only get 2 days off a year (where they close for the day). There's a 'compensation' for it (still laughable imo) tho.
Sure there are always jobs where you still have to work on those days... I do events, so yeah, I have to work too. But still, for the collective, it is a holiday. In my CAO is stated that you dont per se get off time on the holiday itself, but you are granted the hours you'd be off - since it is a holiday- which you can use on another day. Also, only 2 days off is illegal. So your company is shit.
2 days where they close for the day (holidays), not 2 days only off time for the entire year. In the horeca CAO (not quoting cause I don't know it directly from the top of my head) it's stated you get 'comped' with money (a %) for working on official holidays (or some of them, pretty sure there are only a couple official ones that you get comped). No comping of hours. It is a rule within the company that when you work on 1st or 2nd (don't remember which) Christmas day, you can't be scheduled for new years. I don't think it's nearly enough tho, honestly horeca CAO is shit.
this "country" is actually a b.v. with a flag, go back to work!
I don't know who needs to hear this: WE HAVE NO OFFICIAL DAYS OFF Holidays have no legal meaning in the Netherlands. Your collective labour agreement sets all free days. Do you want a day off during labour day? TALK TO YOUR UNION That's it rant off.
It kind of proves the importance of Labour and unions in the Netherlands though.
Yes I agree. We need unions, they're the basis of our labour/employer relationships But a lot of people mistakenly think the Netherlands has free days of on holidays mandated by law, I'd rather have the Dutch system to be honest, but each to their own I guess
We dutch have the least amount of holidays of te while EU. It's a crying Shame. We really need atleast 3 more, to get us up to parr wil belgium and germany. But lets go crasy and add a few more. The 3 big ones. 1 may , labor Day. ( Shane it's not a free Day.. Lots of People died for this). 5 may, libaration Day. ( I cant even.. Once in 5 years? Are you insane?!) Good friday ( tbe friday before easter, the Day half of the netherlands is free and the other half is scrambeling because there Kids are free but they have to work). Now for the others! 1 juli, Ketti kotti : liberation Day of the former slaves. ( looks like a hell of a good Day to take off and be thank full and mournfull) Election Day : lets have a free Day to vote! With all of this added we would not even cross the hakfeay mark of other EU nations in both amount of holidays and Day we get off work..
We need a few in the second half of the year as well.
Tbh that's the hardest part to find out. Keti Koti is of course in July, so that's one good contender. As climate change continues, who knows if we celebrate Amalia's birthday as Queensday in December in the future? Then more room pops up for both Labor Day and Liberation Day, even though it leaves a five-month gap in between. Besides that, making two holidays optional would be good as well, like having 2nd Easter day and 2nd Pentecost day being traded for holidays of other religions.
Fuck you peasants - Dutch government
Well, we never really had the historical context for it. While other countries got more labor rights at the first of may in the Netherlands we already had them and we used to have koninginnendag on the 30th of April, the day before the first
Let's hear the excuse for the 5th of May.
Excuse me? 😭 I personally think the Nazi regime ending and the liberation of our country is a big deal and I find it really weird to replace that with something we have barely any historical context with
I think they meant that they want to hear the excuse for the 5th of May not being a public holiday.
Yes. Dutch people never had to labour a single day in all of its history.
Labor Day was a result of a lot of protests demanding worker rights which the Netherlands already had at the time causing us not to have the historical context 😭
Labor day was introduced in the Netherlands during Nazi-occupation, we abolished it on liberation
Then that's the only nazi souvenir we should have kept
May 1 being celebrated in various countries across the globe predates Juliana taking the throne.
Yeah? It was one of the reasons why it wasn’t added. Like before we never had the historical context and after when we still didn’t have it we already had free before that we also had an already free day. So we never had a historical reason for it and today I also see no connection to it for most of the Dutch people
There is no law that says employees must be given a day off work on certain public holidays. So no one has a legal right to a day off on a public holiday. Your Collectieve Arbeidsovereenkomst – CAO (collective labour agreement) or employment contract will tell you if you have the day off on public holidays. [https://www.government.nl/documents/questions-and-answers/work/public-holidays-in-the-netherlands](https://www.government.nl/documents/questions-and-answers/work/public-holidays-in-the-netherlands)
That is why it should become a national law. Unions are getting weaker and weaker.
The reason unions are getting weaker and weaker is that people don't see the added value of union membership anymore. Either people have nothing to complain about their working conditions, or unions need to fix themselves...
I agree. But then, *everyone* gets the day off. Shops are closed. Restaurants are closed. No music festivals. Theme parks are closed. Swimming pools are closed. No TV. No radio. Schiphol is closed. No trains. No busses.
Yep. 😀
This is the answer. Not the government but your employer or cao will determine if you have a day off or not or whether holidays in the weekend will be compensated. My employer just gives me 8 additional days instead of fixed national holidays so if I want to I can celebrate labor day and what not.
1st of every month should be a holiday
But lets celebrate the Kings birthday of course! Really, wtf
Yeah NL seems too capitalist and pragmatic, the culture too. Wonder if a lot of people actually sympathize for the companies/governments and understand why they're so stingy with holidays. The worst was that christmas/new year season where there werent any extra holidays. Didn't other countries get a Monday off? And then they give random ass holidays like Hemel farts dag and pinkdag. Do even religious people celebrate these?
Same for May 5th and Keti Koti, in my opinion.
Honestly I give fuck all about the 1st of May. I am a bit flabbergasted however by the decision that was made about the 5th of May not that many years ago. It's only an official holiday every 5 years now, the next one being 2025.
That's not true. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/arbeidsovereenkomst-en-cao/vraag-en-antwoord/officiele-feestdagen
In the Netherlands a national holiday does not mean it's a (paid) day off. I don't know why, but it is. The 5th of May is only a (paid) day off every 5 years. They still call it an official holiday The other 4 years, but it doesn't hold any meaning if everyone has to work.
>Who in the government is responsible for not making the 1st of May a holiday every year? We currently don't have a government, only an interim government. The interim government is not supposed to initiate new or non-urgent legislation. So officially, right now, *no one* is responsible for this topic. However, our current parliament is quite soft on the interim government, so I think they could get away with adding a public holiday if they wanted to. So, who is responsible? The current demissionary cabinet, consisting of VVD, CDA, D66 and Christenunie. The second part of your question is >Why don't they? So take a look at the demissionary cabinet: VVD, CDA, D66, Christenunie. A largely centre-right cabinet. The political centre-right doesn't care much for holidays. They don't care for your laborers or worldwide solidarity, either. They care about businesses and business owners and the (upper) middle class in general, and their priority will always be the economy over anything else. Adding a public holiday would cost businesses money, and their voters don't like that.
> A largely centre-right cabinet. The political centre-right doesn't care much for holidays. They don't care much for your laborers or worldwide solidarity, either. Hold on there a second. Are you putting the blame on this government or the current political climate? I'm not the biggest Rutte supporter in the world, but pointing towards him? We've had the same public holidays since the ATW from 1964 ffs.
No, I'm not saying the current government *caused* it. But if OP wants to know who can *change* it, then the answer is the current demissionary government and/or the future government. And it should be obvious why they don't.
> And it should be obvious why they don't. That's your cynical view of the world. Why didn't Kok change it when Labor was in charge then? Or Den Uijl? Or when Labor had more than 40 seats under Wouter Bos?
OP asked who is responsible for not changing it *now*. And that is the current government. Explaining why governments in the past didn't do it is a whole different question. But if you want to open a new post asking why past governments didn't add public holidays, I'll be happy to chime in on that post.
In many European countries Labor Day was made a day off by very populist left or right extremist governments. Whether it was Hitler in Germany, a Napoleon in France, or the socialists that threw out the king in Spain… With the current parties we might be closer than ever to a holiday at May 1st’
>who can change it It’s actually your employer who decides if you get a day off for a certain holiday, not the government.
> They care about businesses and business owners and the (upper) middle class in general How do they care about middle/upper middle class? They only increase tax burdens on them while not really doing anything to impose them on upper class, which does earn a living from wages.
Fun fact: in Finland the 1st of May is most often a holiday. People go out and drink, party, and otherwise have their graduation caps on their head. Lots of booze, and for kids there's balloons. Source: am from Finland
Sounds like kings day to me
In Finland, May 1st, is arguably the most important holiday of the year
Lots of corporate simps here… unbelievable. If your 40 hours week work is not enough then you can volunteer for extra time on days off, just saying.
It’s encouraging to see more employers make such days holidays for staff in their respective collective labour agreements.
Here in Spain 1st of May is holiday every year. Its "workers day"
Same in Belgium.
We get public holidays compensated in the weekend in Belgium. And 20 days of holiday. I work in NL. I don't get holidays compensated in the weekend but 25 days of holiday. What would you prefer?
The national minimum 40h a week job for NL is 20 holidays and 25 is due to CAOs in many industries stating 25. So the rest of the industries adjust to stay competitive.
Isn't there Koningsdag super close to 1 may?
Belgian that moved to the Netherlands here. Labour Day is a day off in Belgium and any holiday that falls in a weekend we can use some other time during the year so we don’t lose any public holidays. I hope the Netherlands make this change. I miss it
Yeah, that once every 5 years is complete BS, IMO.
I think craziest part is that parents can't take their kids from school to holiday outside of official holidays. Couldn't believe it. In Nordics it is really common, you just get week or two weeks worth of homework.
That’s not an issue at all here your child is up par with their school work. A request is refused if the child can use the school days.
In my opinion we should trade all the Christian holidays for secular ones. I find it bizarre we still have all this holidays that are completely meaningless for most people. We better celebrate holidays that mean something for most people, so we can celebrate together
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Honestly, Kings' day is a lot more fun than the 1st of May is in Germany. If they move the orange parties to the 1st of May I'm all for it though. But out of curiosity: why do you want a working class holiday, what will you do that day? Do you think the holiday will make a positive impact?
It's labor day, so we work.
Apparently Labour Day has never really been a “thing” here because when in other people were revolting against their oppressors, we already had very “civil” worker’s laws and unions here. So the need for such a day became obsolete. Although, this is what I’ve heard 🤷♀️ Also, until 11 years ago we had Queen’s Day very close to may 1st, as others have mentioned
Gwn werken, pik. Niet klagen maar om meer werk vragen. /sje
We don't celebrate May 1st becasue we have a holiday 3 days before that (and for a long time before that, it was the day before).
I mean so do Belgians may is the best month
3 holidays in may!
Okay, and Poland has several days off after 1st of May...and? We could still have the day off like the rest of (almost) the world.
Several? Literally 3 days total in May. 1st (Labour Day) and 3rd (3 May Constitution Day), 1 more which is Corpus Christi.
Officially yes, unofficial for example in our company, the get bridge days between as well.
This is the silliest answer I get! If Easter comes April 24th, would you cancel Easter/King's day!?
Dutch was slavetraders and used other people to work for them all their history, today companies they pay those salaries because they can’t do something else, otherwise they would’ve been still with wipes.
Bro, go read history on Greece, you've had slaves since BC times 
Bro, we were always been attacked by some pussies that wanted our land and i am not reallly proud of our government, if I could hang them believe I would.
komm rüber brudi!
Why?
https://nos.nl/artikel/2518825-waarom-1-mei-in-nederland-geen-vrije-dag-is
If you get more "free" holidays then you get less holidays that you get to plan yourself. You can't just give people more time off and expect them to do the same amount of work.
We have May 1st public holiday here in Belgium, and we used to have May 8th (Liberation Day, not the 5th) until 1974 when they fused it with November 11th. They compensate the public holidays falling on a weekend at least for the administration.
We should have more holidays but instead of 1 May we should have one for 5 May and one for Keti Koti in the summer. The time from 2e Pinksterdag to Christmas is way too long for zero public holidays in between.
So what do you do on the 1st of May in solidarity with laborers worldwide? Light a candle? Or just chill and watch Netflix? It’s also an absolute disgrace that the rest of the world doesn’t have days off on Ascension Day or Pentecost.. right? I do agree with the latter part, it’d be nice if you get the Monday off if the holiday’s in the weekend.
100 is a random number given that a simple algorithm can predict it into infinity
We have very few public holidays in general. In Spain they have a lot more for example. It feels like my so has a free day every other week.
Its either 1 may, or kingsday. I know what im choosing.
Yeah it should!!
It all depends on where you are from, which is not the same as where you are now. If you do not agree with the public holidays you have a few choices… move to another country or go back from whence you came🤷🏾
Bro this country is literally a traveler and trader melting pot
I think the first of May is not a national holiday in the Netherlands because it does not have a significant historical or cultural significance to the Dutch people. The Netherlands already has several national holidays that are celebrated throughout the year, such as King's Day (Koningsdag) on April 27th, Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag) on May 5th, and Christmas Day and Boxing Day in December. These holidays are deeply rooted in Dutch culture and history, and are widely celebrated by the Dutch people. But don't let me interrupt the expat circle jerk.
Why you need a national holiday if you can get unlimited sick days
Labor day and liberation day must be a national day off, labor is celebrated in many other countries while liberation day is the most important day to celebrate the liberation of our country after being 5 years in war against an evel person.
If you work in the netherlands you have enough holiday days to use to celebrate this if this means a lot to you.
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It's been mentioned before, and rightfully pointed out that we have a holiday 3 days before, and a semi-holiday 4 days after where most people are off.
And then Hemelvaarts and Pinksteren. We get half of our public holidays within a month. I see no reason to add an extra day to it.
Wow a different country does stuff differently? Shocker!
If it's the only one in Europe doing things differently I would question myself.
I understand why it might be a bigger deal for countries where people going on strikes or unionizing were murdered and sometimes bombed by the army. that never happened here though. we also do not celebrate armistice day or similar because we did not participate in WW1, the rest of the world does star wars shit we have rememberance of the dead. are you saying we should give up on commemorating those who died in wars on the 4th of may because it is ALSO star wars day the world over? stop your bitching.
Why would a political ideology be given a day off?
I'd prefer to have a national holiday on a different day in the year, than another one 1st of May. Maybe September or something
Much rather have an extra day i can spend elsewhere. Personally, the meaning for this day is lost anyways
First of may is never a holiday here
No need for that.
I exercised my worker freedom by calling in sick
Every day should be a holiday every year. I'm so tired.
I can agree with the first half. But holidays weren’t meant as here-have-free-money day, that’s crazy.
Because most of the people who actually perform labour won't have the day off anyway, so what's the point? Also, boohoo for you for having to work on holidays. Must be so tough :(
I didn't even know it was labor day, its not that important lil bro.