Our EU colleagues bank over 50% more paid public holidays than the British

This August Bank Holiday Monday - the UK/EU comparison for bank holidays and working hours

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

EU27 bank holidays outnumber the UK’s, but we work fewer hours/week than most of the EU27

As UK readers enjoy the August Bank Holiday today, Facts4EU.Org looks at how our EU counterparts benefit from an average of 4.7 bank holidays more per year. However, UK workers benefit from working an average of over 1.5 fewer hours per week than the average person in the EU.

The EU itself does very little for workers, contrary to the commonly held view by Remainer-Rejoiners. Bank holidays are the preserve of individual member countries and the vast majority of rules on working conditions also vary considerably from country to country. The only exception is the Working Time Directive but this affects relatively few workers and in any case it is subject to all manner of national derogations.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

1. Bank Holidays – the UK versus the EU27

Romania : 21
Lithuania : 16
Cyprus : 15
Slovakia : 15
Bulgaria : 14
Croatia : 14
Finland : 14
Latvia : 14
Malta : 14
Spain : 14
Czechia : 13
Poland : 13
Portugal : 13
Slovenia : 13

Austria : 12
Italy : 12
Estonia : 11
France : 11
Germany : 11
Greece : 11
Hungary : 11
Luxembourg : 11
Sweden : 11
Belgium : 10
Denmark : 10
Ireland : 10
Netherlands : 10
United Kingdom : 8

[Sources : EU Commission (Eurostat) | EU Commission (European Employment Services) | UK Office for National Statistics.]

NOTE : Most countries have rules about Bank Holidays which vary from year to year and between regions, as well as varying by religious observances and other conditionalities. We have done our best to present the most representative information above. The UK itself has variations, with England and Wales on 8, Scotland on 9, and Northern Ireland on 10. We have shown the number for the most populous parts of the country : England and Wales.

The EU’s (limited) rules on hours of work

The EU Commission would like nothing more than to impose its will on all member countries when it comes to hours of work and every other aspect of working life. So far this has not been possible, with the exception of the ‘Working Time Directive’. (See below.)

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Average working week – the UK versus the EU27

In 2023, EU27 average working hours : 38.2
In 2024, UK average working hours : 36.6

The data is for full-time employed persons, aged 15-64 years.

[Sources : EU Commission (Eurostat) | EU Commission (European Employment Services) | UK Office for National Statistics. Datasets updated June 2024.]

The EU’s Working Time Directive stipulates in principle :

48 maximum working hours per week (over a reference period of four months)
11 consecutive hours of daily rest
24 hours of uninterrupted weekly rest every seven days (over a reference period of two weeks)
A break during the day if working six hours per day or more
Night workers may not work more than an average of eight hours per 24 hours

However, derogations from some of the working time obligations are possible if allowed by national law. For example :

“If permitted by national law, you may have an agreement with a staff member to work beyond the 48-hour limit.”
- EU Commission, current standing statement

When it comes to pay, there is no EU 'Minimum Working Wage’, nor such a thing as a ‘EU Minimum Living Wage’.

Observations

The Facts4EU.Org team wishes all readers a relaxing and peaceful August Bank Holiday today, Monday 26 August 2024. Our report today looks at how the UK has always provided far fewer bank holidays than the EU27. Not only does its tally of eight lie well below the EU average (12.7 days), the UK was always the outlier as a member country, having the fewest bank holidays of all EU members.

In order to provide another perspective, we also researched the latest data available from the EU and from the UK authorities on the actual hours worked per week, on average, by the citizens of the EU and the UK. This shows that whilst we may enjoy fewer statutory paid holidays than our EU counterparts, the outcome over the year in terms of hours worked overall somewhat mitigates the effect of having fewer full days off work.

This does not cover the shortfall in annual national public holidays, but then the UK's economy is performing much better than all the major EU economies, so perhaps this is some consolation.

For our Rejoiner readers we will simply say this : If EU membership is so essential to our economic prosperity, why is it that the once mighty EU economic powerhouse of Germany had to report another 0.1% loss in GDP in the last quarter (Apr-Jun) despite its continued EU membership? [Source: German Federal Statistics Agency, Aug 2024.] The non-EU United Kingdom posted a 0.6% rise in GDP in the same period.

PLEASE NOTE : Facts4EU has now scaled back to publishing 5 days-a-week

For over eight years we have worked and published our exclusive reports seven days-a-week. As far as we are aware we are the only organisation of our type to have done this. We are grateful to those of our readers who have made donations but sadly the level of our funding is now such that we must make it stretch for as long as we can. This means team members taking other paid work and reducing our output to five days-a-week.

Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.

P.S. : Although we are now only publishing reports Mon-Fri, members of the team worked through Sunday on this Bank Holiday weekend, in order to bring readers this report today.

[ Sources: EU Commission (Eurostat) | EU Commission (European Employment Services) | UK Office for National Statistics ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Bank Holiday Monday, 26 Aug 2024

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Reader Comments 1

1. Harry Potter , Monday, August 26, 2024, 08:53:

The EU’s Working Time Directive
For British workers especially in the building trade, it was quite easy to get around it. My firm of Air con, plumbers, and welders got around it by signing a small contract saying they opted out of it. if we had not done that the wages of the employees would have halved and we would have lost contracts. All, of the employees, over 155 regularly worked 70 hours a week Air Con and Plumbers being on 24 how call out duty 7 days a week. Welders and heating engineers would be on large contracts that required them to work sometimes 7 days a week and even what the trade called ghosters which was work with breaks 24 hours a day with the next day off with pay. There was a three-month op-out where they could give a three-month notice to go on the EU’s Working Time Directive.

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