An exercise conducted by The Malta Independent revealed that the majority of European Union member states do not have the leave in lieu of public holidays on weekend system, which has been in force in Malta and which the government intends to remove.

Through the Maltese system in place until last year, workers were granted an extra day’s leave when a public or a national holiday falls on a weekend.

However, in a bid to increase Malta’s competitiveness, the government wants to abolish this system and has proposed that workers will not have days added to their leave for every public holiday falling on a weekend.

This measure brought criticism from the country’s trade unions who claimed that if the government went ahead with the implementation of this measure, it would be in breach of various collective agreements.

Instead of amending the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, the government said it would propose an amendment to the National and Public Holidays Act. The unions are saying this would mean that holidays falling on weekends would no longer be considered to be public holidays – as if they were not there in the first place.

In 2005, there are four holidays which fall on a Saturday or a Sunday: New Year’s Day (Saturday), the feast of St Joseph the Worker (Saturday), Workers’ Day (Sunday) and Christmas Day (Sunday).

Over the past days, The Malta Independent has been in contact with the embassies or consulates of various European Union member states. In some cases, when the consuls did not have the information at hand, the information was sought from the country’s embassy in the nearest country, usually Rome, Italy.

All embassies or consulates were contacted but due to the festive season, not all the countries made it in time to give this newspaper a reply to its questions by the time of going to print.

The following are the 16 member states which replied that they do not compensate for a public or national holiday falling on a weekend: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The other member states either could not reply to our questions because they did not have the information available or because their consulate or embassy, as in the case of Ireland, was on shut down. None of the member states contacted replied that workers in their countries are given a day in lieu of the holiday that fell on a weekend.

When replying to our questions, some embassies or consulates said that in their country, if a public or national holiday fell on a weekend, “it’s just bad luck for the workers”.

A spokesman for the French embassy explained that in France employers do not compensate for public or national holidays falling on a weekend, adding that there are never more than 11 public and national holidays per year. In Malta there are 14 such holidays.

“At the moment there is a debate in France because the government decided to cancel one public holiday, on the Monday after Pentecost. The decision has been taken and this public holiday will not be given this year,” he said.

In the United Kingdom, the normal practice is that public or national holidays falling on a weekend are not compensated by adding one day’s leave to the worker’s annual leave. However, this is not valid for Christmas and the New Year.

In the UK, Boxing Day and 2 January are always bank holidays. Christmas Day in 2004 fell on a Saturday and this meant that the Britons were also given 27 and 28 December off for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the latter falling on Sunday. Likewise, they were given days off on 3 and 4 January for New Year’s Day and 2 January, which again fell on a Saturday and a Sunday.

In Belgium, the government issues a calendar at the beginning of the year including the country’s public and national holidays. When one of these holidays falls on a Sunday, they are not compensated, except for Christmas and the New Year.

In The Netherlands, workers are not given an extra day’s leave when a public or national holiday falls on a Sunday. However, there is only one holiday – Queen’s Day, celebrated on 30 April – if it falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated the previous day.

In Greece, there is no law that lays down that that the government is obliged to give a day off to Greek workers if a public or national holiday falls on a weekend. However, if a minister decided to grant the day off to workers who fall under his jurisdiction, he may.

When public holiday falls on a weekend the Lithuanian workers do not get a day off. The only exception is when a worker is on annual vocation – when one of the days is a public holiday these days are not counted as part of vacation leave.

All the other countries replied with a simple answer: that in their respective countries, public or national holidays which fall on a weekend will be lost. These are Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia and Poland.