Special holidays

Ascension Day in France is a national holiday. It is the 40th day of Easter, which falls on Sundays, and always falls on Thursdays. Thus the following Friday is made a bridging holiday, which makes a four-day holiday. French workers can take eight days on vacation in total. This year, there are eight national holidays in France that don't overlap with weekends. So bridging holidays are subtracted from paid holidays.

In Japan, April 29 is Showa Day, May 3 is Constitution Day, May 4 is Green Day and May 5 is Children's Day. This makes a golden holiday week. This year, if a worker takes two weekdays off, he or she can rest for 10 straight days. Public offices still work in these days but most companies are off. However, workers have to subtract the days taken off from monthly leave days.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce has suggested designating May 6, Friday, as a tentative holiday to boost domestic demand. It must have consulted with the government before the suggestion. If this issue is voted for at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, people can have a four-day holiday. At temporary holidays, workers are still paid but production days are cut. But is there a need to produce products that are not sold? It is not that the Olympics or World Cup will be held. There will be consistency problem if temporary holidays are made for the purpose of boosting demand. Only a week is left and if May 6 is designated as a holiday, companies and schools will have to rush to change their plans set at the beginning of the year, which will result in confusion.

National holiday means public offices can take off based on law. Companies place national holidays as paid holidays based on a collective agreement. Labor Day is the case in point. In advanced countries, sandwiched days are designated as holidays because companies allow employees to rest, and this practice is followed by schools and public offices. Korean companies, however, are not even considering making new practices. It is good that workers can have a four-day holiday, but gains and losses should be considered.