More Dutch workers get paid time off on Liberation Day

The number of collective labor agreements in the Netherlands granting workers a paid day off on Liberation Day every year has grown to 13 percent in 2025 from 8 percent in 2022, according to the employers' association AWVN.

AWVN, which analyzes more than 500 collective bargaining agreements each year, reports that 79 percent of agreements still provide the paid day off only every five years—in lustrum years—a figure that has remained unchanged. In 67 agreements, Liberation Day is not mentioned at all as a holiday, though the share of employers who do not treat the day as any kind of holiday has fallen from 13 percent to 9 percent.

“The real growth is there: it is ultimately a rise of 5 percentage points,” AWVN spokesman Jannes van der Velde told AD of the shift toward annual paid days off.

Liberation Day on May 5 is not a statutory public holiday. Employers and employees must negotiate any paid time off, just as with Christmas. National and municipal government employees receive the day off, while practices vary across the private sector.

The increase in annual paid Liberation Day agreements follows a 2021 call by then-Deputy Prime Minister Mark Rutte to make May 5 a yearly free day for all. After liberation in 1945, the day was initially set to be celebrated every five years. It became a national holiday in 1990.

Not every company can afford to close for the day. AWVN warns that an extra paid holiday represents a significant cost because employers continue to pay wages while losing a full day of production.

Van der Velde put the cost at roughly 400 euros per employee per day. Statistics Netherlands data show average hourly labor costs at 47.60 euros. For a company with 100 employees, a single paid day off would cost more than 38,000 euros in wages with no output in return.

“If all collective-agreement employees were to receive a paid free day, the sum would be five million people times 400 euros,” Van der Velde told AD. “But there are also collective agreements in which such an arrangement will never be made and people who do not fall under a collective agreement. Ultimately, it will amount to 1.5 to 2 billion euros in costs.”

Some sectors cannot shut down even if they want to. In the process industry and chemicals, production runs day and night and requires minimum staffing, making a full day off impractical.

Other sectors see increased demand on Liberation Day. Hospitality businesses stay open to serve people who have the day free, while police, firefighters, and healthcare workers continue their shifts as normal.

“On days like King’s Day when you and I walk around the free market, there are people in the hospitality sector working to provide us with beer,” Van der Velde said. “But also, the police, fire brigade, and care services just keep running. Then you are talking about quite a lot of people.”

The trend toward more annual paid days off has been building steadily. In 2022, only 27 percent of workers in the Netherlands received a paid Liberation Day off every year. By 2024 this had risen to 34 percent, according to figures released by then-Minister of Social Affairs Eddy van Hijum. This growth follows repeated calls since 2019 by the Dutch government and the Labour Foundation encouraging employers to make May 5 a regular annual holiday instead of only in every fifth year.