From Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, people in the China region had an eight-day long vacation. Although the long holidays are geared towards people within China, in the globalized world nowadays, cross-border cooperation as well as managing a global workforce has become the norm, which makes it necessary for these companies to keep an eye on the legal holidays of other countries in order to keep their business running normally. However, legal holidays vary from country to country, and companies need to spend a lot of time and effort to keep track of the different legal holidays in each country when managing them.

As a one-stop service platform for global employment and payroll management, PayInOne’s products and systems cover the employment guidelines of each country, including laws and regulations, policy changes, labor protection, investment policies, and entry thresholds. To facilitate your understanding of the global employment compliance market, PayInOne will introduce more content related to global holidays.

Global Long Holidays

Like China, the National Independence Day (National Day) of other countries is also a public holiday, although most of them basically only have 1 day off, not reaching the number of days of China’s National Day long holiday. However, there are specific holidays around the world.

1. Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and lasts for 30 days, during which Muslims are prohibited from eating, drinking, smoking and other activities from sunrise to sunset every day. The day after Ramadan ends is Eid al-Fitr.

For Muslims, Ramadan is the grand festival and most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims celebrate the holy month of Ramadan every year. This also means that it is celebrated in Islamic countries across the globe. For example, Ramadan is celebrated in 48 countries and territories such as the UAE, Indonesia, and Malaysia. During Ramadan, these countries take a “mini vacation”.

In 2023, the Indonesian government announced Ramadan public holidays from April 19 to April 25, a total of seven days; in Saudi Arabia, it will start at the end of the working day on Thursday, April 20, and last for four days (weekends are not counted) until Wednesday, April 26, a total of six days.

2. Christmas Day

Christmas is an important Christian festival commemorating the birth of Jesus, which is celebrated on December 25 every year and is a public holiday in most Western countries. At the same time, December 26, Boxing Day, is also included in many countries as a public holiday, collectively known as the Christmas holiday.

The U.S. and Canada generally take two to three days off, but in some states and provinces, there may be an additional day or two off, such as in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, which takes the day before Christmas (December 24th).

Can employers require employees to work on public holidays?

According to the labor regulations of each country, workers/laborers are not obliged to work on statutory holidays, and employees should take leave in accordance with the statutory public holidays. And under most countries’ laws, employees have the right to refuse to work on public holidays.

However, in some countries, employees may be required to work on statutory public holidays when there is a reasonable demand.

For example, in Australia, a reasonable demand is met:

• the nature of the business
• the employee’s personal circumstances, such as family responsibilities
• the amount of advance notice given by the employer

What additional compensation should an employee receive for working on a public holiday?

If an employee works on a public holiday, in most cases they will be compensated accordingly, e.g. increased annual leave, increased pay for the day, compensatory time off, etc.

New Zealand:

If work is done on a public holiday (whether or not the day is the employee’s working day), all employees must be paid (at least) the greater of the following two amounts

• the employee’s relevant daily rate of pay or average daily rate of pay (where applicable) for the time actually worked on that day (excluding any punitive pay in the employment agreement in relation to that day) plus one-half of that amount (time plus one-half), or
• the employee’s relevant daily rate (or average daily rate) for the time actually worked on that day (including any punitive pay in the employment agreement). An employee is not entitled to time-and-a-half pay in addition to punitive pay.

Singapore:

Under Singapore employment law, if an employee works on a public holiday, by default, the employer should pay the employee an additional day’s pay.
Or, by mutual agreement, receive one of the following:

• In lieu of public holidays.
• In lieu of vacation (only for employees not covered under Part IV of the Employment Act).

Brazil:

Employees have the right not to work on public holidays established by law to celebrate holidays (e.g., Christmas, Independence Day, etc.) and are entitled to receive their regular pay for those days. If an employer requires an employee to work on a holiday, the employee must be paid at least twice his or her regular remuneration for the working holiday.

Slovakia:

Employees who work on public holidays are entitled to receive realized wages and wage benefits of at least 100% of their average earnings. If the employer and the employee agree to take compensatory time off on a public holiday, the employee is entitled to one hour of compensatory time off for one hour of work on a public holiday.

How do employees take global paid leave?

In addition to public holidays, employees are also entitled to paid holidays. Global paid leave is basically divided into two categories, one is required to be entitled to leave according to the employee’s years of service; the other is a unified standard paid leave.

Paid leave is incremental according to the number of years of service:

In Korea, in addition to public holidays, employees are entitled to 15 days of paid annual leave after one year of service. For every subsequent two years of service, employees are entitled to an additional day of annual leave, up to a maximum of 25 days. During the first year of employment, employees are entitled to one day of paid annual leave per month, but said annual leave days will be deducted from the number of days of annual leave entitlement for the following year.

Uniform standard of paid leave:

In Switzerland, for example, employers must provide at least four weeks of paid vacation per year for employees over the age of 20, and employees under the age of 20 are entitled to at least five weeks of paid vacation per year. (These vacation rights apply to both part-time and full-time employees.)

Can paid and public holidays be taken together?

Most workers in the UK who work 5 days a week must get at least 28 days paid annual leave a year. This equates to 5.6 weeks’ holiday. Bank holidays or public holidays do not have to be taken as paid leave. Employers can treat public holidays as part of the annual leave entitlement, but many businesses treat public holidays and statutory holidays as separate leave entitlements.

In Brazil, under the Brazilian Labor Code, after each 12 months of employment, an employee is entitled to 30 calendar days of paid leave, which must be taken during the subsequent 12-month period at the employer’s most convenient period. With the consent of the employee, the labor reform allows for splitting the leave. The vacation period may be divided into a maximum of three periods, one of which may not be less than 14 days, and the remaining periods may not be less than five days each. In addition, the vacation cannot start two days before a holiday or weekend. In addition, the employee may also “sell” 1/3 of his/her vacation, which is paid as a monthly salary plus 1/3 of the employee’s monthly salary as a vacation bonus.

How are vacation bonuses paid?

Depending on the rules of certain countries, employees will be paid their vacation pay before the vacation, usually in the form of 13 pay or bonus.

1. Vacation bonus/religious allowance:

Christmas Bonus:

In countries where Christmas is a public holiday, most will pay Christmas bonuses around Christmas.

According to Article 87 of the Mexican Federal Labor Law, workers have the right to receive a Christmas bonus before December 20, and the right to enjoy a Christmas bonus requires the employer to pay the employee a percentage of the salary before the end of the year.

Religious allowances:

As the holiest festival for the Muslim population, it is customary for Muslim countries such as Malay and Indonesia to issue bonuses before the month of Ramadan.
This year, for example, Indonesia‘s Ministry of Manpower issued Circular No. M/2/HK.04.00/III/2023, which stipulates that religious allowances must be paid in full this year. Businesses are obliged to pay religious holiday allowance, also known as Tunjangan Hari Raya (THR).Tunjangan Hari Raya is an annual bonus given to employees at least one week before the start of the religious holiday (based on the employee’s religious beliefs).The recognized religious holidays for THR payment are:

• Eid-ul-Fitr for Muslims
• Christmas for Catholics and Protestants (considered two different religions in Indonesia); and
• Nyepi for Hindus
• Vesak for Buddhists
• Chinese New Year

Since most Indonesian workers adhere to the Islamic faith, it is the practice of many businesses in the country to pay Muslim employees THR before the Eid break and non-Muslim employees THR before the Christmas holiday.

2. Thirteen paychecks:

Some countries provide for the payment of thirteen salaries before Christmas, or around other important holidays.

For example, in the Philippines, an ordinary worker who works at least one month in a calendar year is entitled to receive a thirteenth month’s pay based on the employee’s base salary. It needs to be provided to the employee by December 24 every year. In addition to the thirteenth paycheck, employers have the discretion to grant a “Christmas bonus”.

Portuguese employment law requires employers to pay the 13th and 14th month’s salary, i.e. two additional months’ salary. The 14th month’s salary is payable in the summer, while the 13th month’s salary is payable at Christmas.

In Saudi Arabia, although there is no legal requirement, the 13th month’s salary is usually paid to employees at Eid al-Fitr.

In Vietnam, employees who have worked for an employer for more than one year are usually paid thirteen months’ salary around the Lunar New Year or before the end of the year.

3. The second installment of the thirteen salaries is paid:

Some countries pay bonuses before Christmas, but as the second installment of the thirteen salaries.

For example, in Brazil, employers are required to pay thirteen salaries to workers at the end of each year. The first part requires that the company must provide an installment of the bonus between February 1st and November 30th. The second part must be paid between November 30th and December 20th.

Colombia, like Brazil, requires companies to pay in two installments. The first installment is due by the end of June and the second installment is due by December 20th.

Greek law requires that the 13th and 14th month’s salary be paid in three installments. The 13th month’s salary is paid at the end of the year and the 14th month’s salary is paid around Easter and during the summer.

A more detailed global employment guide can be found at → payin.one/global-insights Or use the PayInOne Chatbot on the official website to ask questions on your own, and for any other related questions, contact: [email protected]

*The content of this article refers to the existing local labor laws, such as local policy changes should also be implemented in accordance with the actual policy