There will be no free Christmas Eve this year, but there will be one from 2025. Another public holiday has once again sparked a discussion about whether Poles have more or fewer such days than citizens of other European countries. As we have checked, we are not far from the top, and a free Christmas Eve will bring us closer to the podium.
October 25, 2024, MPs of the Left they submitted a draft amendment to the Act on public holidays and certain other acts in the Sejm. He assumed that December 24 would be a day off from work. The first reading of the bill took place on November 8, and the Sejm decided to refer it for further work to two parliamentary committees – the Social Policy and Family Committee and the Economy and Development Committee. It took place on November 18 meeting the first one. Attention was paid to, among others: the rapid pace of work and the consequences of introducing the change this year. Common meeting both committees took place on November 26. The Left's project received a positive opinion, and earlier the committees introduced amendments to the project proposed by the Civic Coalition. Changes regarding the date of entry into force of the new solutions (which would apply from February 2025) and the introduction of an amendment to the draft to ensure that three Sundays before Christmas Eve are commercial were passed.
“Czechs, Finns, Portuguese, Lithuanians and Slovaks have been enjoying the holiday on December 24 for a long time. Why shouldn't Polish workers take advantage of this joy? The economies of these countries did not collapse because Christmas Eve is a day off from work and the Polish economy also collapsed. it won't fail, because the costs of implementing this project will be negligible. But many families will become stronger and simply happier,” the minister said on November 8 in the Sejm family, work and social policy Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk. On November 27, the MPs voted parliamentary bill amending the Act on non-working days and certain other acts, which introduces an additional non-working day on December 24. The changes will come into force in 2025. However, the amendment also provides that from next year, three Sundays preceding Christmas Eve will be commercial (now there are two Sundays). 425 MPs voted for the adoption of the act, 10 were against and 12 MPs abstained.
Over the last month, during the public discussion on whether we should have a free Christmas Eve, Poland has been compared in this respect with other European countries. That is: in which countries citizens have more and in which fewer public holidays a year. “I am in favor of keeping the number of days off during the year unchanged. We have 13 days off. Please, let's make Christmas Eve free instead of another holiday. (…) I guess we don't want to be the country in Europe that has one of the highest numbers of public holidays“ – said on November 4, Polish 2050 MP Rafał Petru on Radio Zet. In turn, PiS MP Michał Woś reminded w radio RMF FM November 20 that December 24 is an important day not only for Catholics, but also for atheists and agnostics. “We have 13 additional days off due to holidays. AND we are not among the leading European countries'' – said Woś.
We checked how Poland compares to other European countries when it comes to the number of public holidays.
Poland in the top ten, close to the podium
The matter is not easy to determine because different reports on this subject provide different data. The information on the websites of the European institutions does not match the information on the national websites. Several studies available online on the number of days off from work in European countries, including those published by the Polish media, also provide different data. Therefore, when preparing our list, we used information on the websites of individual countries' governments, we asked the ministries responsible for regulating this issue, and we were also helped by fact-checkers in a given country.
Ultimately, we considered 25 European countries. As the chart below shows, seven countries have more public holidays than in Poland, so we are not at the forefront in this respect – but we are still in the top ten. However, if we look at it from the point of view of places on the podium, Poland is just behind. There are the same number of public holidays as in our country in the four countries we analyzed: Austria, Slovakia, Czech RepublicFinland.
There are five countries in our list where December 24 is now a public holiday: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. However, in Iceland, employees have Christmas Eve off from 1 p.m. Next year, if Christmas Eve is a day off in Poland, we will jump on the podium, equaling Greece, Spain and Iceland in this respect.
In Poland, such days are defined Act of January 18, 1951 on days off from work. According to it, there are 13 such days. They are: New Year's Day (January 1), Epiphany (January 6), the first day of Easter, the second day of Easter, the National Day (May 1), the National Day of the Third of May, the first day of Green Day. Świątek, Corpus Christi Day, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15), All Saints' Day (November 1), National Independence Day (November 11), Christmas Day (December 25), Boxing Day (December 26). In addition, Sundays are non-working days – except commercial Sundays. Please note that two Sundays – Easter and Whitsunday – are counted twice as days off. The same is true in the countries whose data we present.
In which countries do they have fewer days off than Poles?
The least, eight days, are public holidays Great Britain – except that we are talking about England and Wales. Because in Scotland there are nine public holidays and in Northern Ireland – ten. The same number of days off are guaranteed by law Ireland and Belgium.
11 public holidays apply in: Italy. It's the same Francehowever, in some of its departments (administrative division units) there are also other additional days off. This is the case in the Moselle, Lower Rhine and Upper Rhine, Where the number is 12 days off, and also about the overseas departments, in Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin, Where additional days off were introduced to commemorate the abolition of slavery.
This is a special case Netherlandswhere the law mentions 11 days, but not statutory holidays, but public holidays. There is no legal provision that obliges the employer to give employees time off on these days. This is determined by the employment contract. 11 public holidays also apply in: Luxembourg, Swedenon Hungary . However, residents of Norway enjoy 12 days off a year (1,2) i Estonia.
Where they have more free days than Poles
IN Greece and Iceland There are 14 days off from work, and in Portugal there are 14 Slovenia – 15. Greek law provides for nine public holidays and the possibility of a further five days added by decision of the minister. Lithuania and Latvia have the most days off from work – 16 (data from the Lithuanian National Labor Inspectorate and the Latvian Ministry of Social Welfare).
The situation is slightly different in countries such as Spain, Germany or Switzerland, where the exact number of days off or their dates are decided by the authorities of individual regions. And so in Spainas told to us by the local Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, the total maximum number of public holidays is 14, of which nine are national and the remaining five are elected by the autonomous communities and their city councils. Similarly in Germany. The Press and Information Office of the Federal Government of Germany informed us that the law specifies nine public holidays throughout the country, but this competence is essentially the responsibility of the states. In Switzerland, however, only one day has a nationwide character – August 1, which is the Swiss national holiday. “Depending on the canton and even the specific region, there can be up to eight different public holidays,” a spokesman for the Federal Department of Economic Affairs told us.
Main photo source: Left (press materials)