Why are we not free every year on May 5th?

A paid day off, I guess no one says no to that. Now, it is of course standard that those who have it on Christmas or New Year's Day, but when it comes to May 5th, we only get lucky once every five years. Some companies don't even participate then, you just have to show up at the office. What's up with that? Why aren't we just off every year on May 5th, since it's an official holiday?

That's true, but an official holiday does not automatically mean that you also earn a day off. Funny, because I really didn't know that; I thought offices were somehow required to give their staff time off at Christmas. That's not the case. Suppose a company simply refuses to close its doors and includes that in your contract, then you are just obliged to work on holidays. Well, I say.

The Netherlands has a total of ten official holidays, of which eight mean that we are off. Good Friday doesn't always count and May 5th doesn't either. So what's up with that arrangement that we get that day off once every five years?

That was established in 1959, at the time on the recommendation of the Foundation of Labor. It was decided to do that in the jubilee years. Silly me, I thought it just looked nicer and neater if it fell in the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and so on. It has nothing to do with that; the war ended in 1945, so the jubilee years fall like that.

Having a day off every year on May 5th would be a party, especially since we already have quite a few days off during this time. And that's precisely the reason it only occurs once every five years; otherwise, it would be a bit too much of a good thing. ‘If an extra day is added, it becomes quite a lot,’ says employers‘ association AWVN. Trade union FNV thinks that's total nonsense and says: ’Dutch people really don't have that many days off. We want May 5th to be an annual day off.'

They have been advocating for everyone to simply have a day off on May 5th every year for a while now. Whether they will ever really get that through remains to be seen... But hey, if you can't wait: work for the Dutch government. Because there, you are the only ones who are indeed off every May 5th as standard.

Source: Now.nl