Due to the beautiful weather, Easter Monday was an ideal day to visit family, a festival, the furniture boulevard or a walk through nature. And at the end of May there is another such day, at the beginning of June another. Christian holidays that are equated with Sunday in many collective labor agreements and employment contracts and on which you are obliged to take the day off are Easter Monday, Ascension Day and Whit Monday.
And that while religious groups are now a minority in the Netherlands. Isn’t it strange then that many people are free on a day whose Christian meaning means less and less people? And what about other religious holidays, such as Sugar Feast, Sacrifice Feast, Diwali and Yom Kippur? It was a question that was discussed in the daily newspaper NRC last weekend.
A number of companies now offer employees the opportunity to exchange Easter Monday, Ascension Day or Whit Monday for another holiday. This is how it works in the United States, for example: no extra days off, but days off that are important to the employee. It can strengthen mutual respect for each other’s (religious) choices because a conversation takes place about the why of that day.
Would this also be a good idea in our country? In short, remove compulsory days off and let everyone choose for themselves. What do you think?