With May Day coming up Sunday, celebrated in Germany and much of the world as Labor Day, a new issue is up for discussion as politicians, especially on the left, call for German to replace its 'lost holidays.'
Those are the official holidays that fall on a weekend; unlike the U.S. where weekend holidays are shifted to the nearest weekday and where many of the official holidays are now always on Monday, in Germany there's no 'make up' when a weekend holiday occurs.
And it's not just May Day this year: Christmas and New Years' coming up will also be on weekends. A leader of Die Linke party told reporters that “Every lost holiday means more stress and less urgently needed rest from the stresses of work and the pandemic.”
The labor specialist of the Green Party, one of the parties in the governing coalition, added that “Of course it is annoying for employees when precisely Labor Day, the May 1st holiday, falls on a Sunday. It is now time to discuss socially how holidays that fall on a Sunday can be made up, as is already the case in a number of countries.”
Similar discussions have come up recently in Switzerland, as well.
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