Leisure time
Left: Make up for weekend holidays on Mondays
Entrepreneurs in Berlin and Brandenburg would prefer to have fewer holidays off. The Left thinks that the other way around makes a big deal out of it.
If holidays fall on the weekend, they should be made up on Mondays, according to a proposal from the Left. The left-wing member of the Bundestag Christian Görke is countering a move by the Berlin-Brandenburg business associations to generally set public holidays on Sundays so that no working day is lost during the week.
“The tables have to be turned,” says Görke, parliamentary director of the Left Bundestag group. “Instead of restricting hard-won workers’ rights, we have to expand them. Spain, Belgium and Great Britain are showing the way: If public holidays fall on a Sunday, they will be made up on the next working day. We should follow this example.”
The business associations based their idea on the weak economy in the capital region. They calculated that each additional working day would bring Berlin an economic benefit of around 230 million euros. The business representatives particularly targeted International Women’s Day on March 8, which has been a public holiday in the capital since 2019. This year March 8th falls on a Saturday anyway.
dpa
Source: Stern
