These are the legal holidays in Belgium:
- January 1
- Easter Monday
- May 1st
- Ascension
- Whit Monday
- July 21
- August 15
- November 1
- November 11
- December 25
The holiday falls during your contract
If a public holiday falls during your contract, you get paid for it. For example: you have a contract from November 9 to 13. Then you will be paid for the public holiday of November 11.
The public holiday falls between two contracts
If you have a contract just before and just after the public holiday, you will also be paid the public holiday. For example: if you have a contract for November 9 and 10 and also a contract for November 12 and 13, you will be paid for the public holiday on November 11. If you work full-time, you usually have contracts from Monday to Friday, and no contract on weekends. Then, if the holiday falls on a Monday or a Friday, you'll get paid that too, because the weekend doesn't count.
The holiday falls on the weekend
Now suppose a holiday falls on the weekend, then it is moved to another date. For example, if Nov. 11 falls on a Saturday, then a company can choose to move it to the next Monday. Companies choose which date it is then moved to. We call that day a replacement holiday. The same rules apply to it as on a regular holiday.
The public holiday falls after your contract
If a public holiday falls after your contract, you could still get paid for it. At least, if you are not working after that contract.
- If you worked less than 15 days as a temporary worker, you are not entitled to the public holiday after that contract.
- If you worked more than 15 days but less than a month, you are entitled to 1 paid holiday within 14 calendar days of your last contract.
- If you've worked more than a month, then you're entitled to all public holidays within 30 calendar days of your last contract.
This is how you know if you've worked long enough
Count all the working days you worked. If you worked full time as a temp, you usually got a contract from Monday to Friday, but not for Saturday and Sunday, and then again from Monday to Friday. In that case, you may still count Saturday and Sunday.