More workers getting Liberation Day as a paid day off

Most employees in the Netherlands have a paid day off on Liberation Day once every five years. But a growing group can celebrate the holiday every year. The number of collective labor agreements (CLAs) stipulating that May 5th is an annual paid day off is steadily increasing, Trouw reports based on figures from the employers’ association AWVN.

Liberation Day is a national holiday in the Netherlands, but that does not automatically mean a day off. That is determined by the CLA.

In 2022, 8 percent of CLAs included May 5 as an annual paid day off. Last year, this number had grown to 13 percent. An AWVN spokesperson expects the number to rise again this year. “This trend is slowly continuing. And if such a pay agreement is in place for May 5, it is rarely, if ever, reversed.”

Jacqie van Stigt of trade union FNV confirms that more and more people have paid time off on Liberation Day every year. “But let’s be honest. This is still very little.”

FNV always pushes for a paid day off on May 5, Van Stigt said. “It is incredibly important that everyone can celebrate freedom and democracy on May 5. We would like to see Liberation Day established by law as an annual day off,” Van Stight said. “Then it will no longer depend on negotiations.”

In 2019, the government advised the Labor Foundation to recommend a day off on Liberation Day every year instead of every five years. The government cannot go beyond such a recommendation, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Affairs told Trouw. “We do not have a ban on working during public holidays. That also applies to Christmas, for example.”

Nevertheless, FNV wants Liberation Day established as a paid day off by law. “Of course, certain sectors have to keep working, such as healthcare,” Van Stigt said. “But then you have to treat that day just like Christmas, where employees receive more money.”

“It is also about the status you give Liberation Day,” she added. “If you legally establish it as a day off, you convey how important it is that we can celebrate that freedom.”