Public holidays (and bridge days)

Belgium has ten paid public holidays per year. If a holiday falls in the weekend, you are entitled to a replacement day. The tables below automatically compute the dates, weekdays and bridge-day opportunities for this year and next.

The ten statutory holidays

New Year's Day, Easter Monday, Labour Day (1 May), Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Belgian National Day (21 July), Assumption (15 August), All Saints' Day (1 November), Armistice Day (11 November) and Christmas. On those days you may in principle not be put to work and your pay simply continues. If you do work (shifts, continuous services), you are entitled to compensatory rest and the holiday supplements of your joint committee apply.

Replacement days and bridge days

If a holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, your employer must grant a replacement day: fixed collectively at company or sector level, or otherwise freely chosen by you. Bridge days (the Friday after a Thursday holiday or the Monday before a Tuesday holiday) are not a right: you take leave for them, unless your company plans them collectively. Planned smartly, two leave days quickly turn a long weekend into a mini holiday.

Holidays and shift work

In full-continuous and shift systems, work often simply continues on holidays; your collective agreement then sets the supplement (often 100 percent on top of pay, sometimes more) and the compensatory rest. When considering a shift vacancy, always check how holidays are arranged; it makes a difference of several days and hundreds of euros a year. Those leaving employment even retain holiday pay rights for holidays shortly after the contract ends, under conditions.