What do you mean free? The Netherlands is still at work during Labor Day

By means of: Addo Sprangers

10 minutes ago

General

ZUNDERT – Labor Day is celebrated almost everywhere in the world today and employees can enjoy a paid holiday. The Netherlands is an exception to this: while our Belgian and German neighbors, for example, are free, almost everyone in the Netherlands works ‘normally’. There’s a reason for that.

In 1889, at the so-called Second International in Paris, May 1 was declared the official International Labor Day. The aim was to strengthen the struggle for the eight-hour working day and better working conditions through celebrations that brought together large groups of workers. The first organized Labor Day took place in 1890. Workers in much of Europe and the United States took to the streets en masse. After this, Labor Day grew into an annual tradition.

National holiday

In many European countries, May 1 is an official paid holiday. This is not the case in the Netherlands. This is partly because Queen’s Day, the predecessor of King’s Day, previously fell on April 30 and we are mainly free on church holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Another reason is that the confrontations between unions and the government in our country were less bloody than in, for example, France, Spain or Russia. For some employees in the Netherlands, May 1 is a day off: thanks to an agreement in the Cleaning Collective Labor Agreement, around 150,000 cleaners are allowed to rest on their laurels today.