Christmas Eve (December 24) and New Year’s Eve (December 31) are often treated as “half official holidays” – in many companies, stores close early, teams take partial time off, or employers give their employees half a day off. Legally, these days are not public holidays in most countries; whether and how time off or “half vacation days” are granted depends on other legal bases.
Summary of the legal situation (at a glance)
- No public holidays: December 24 and December 31 are normal working days according to the law—without automatic entitlement to time off.
- Vacation is calculated according to the Federal Law:Â Fractions of vacation days that amount to at least half a day must be rounded up in most European countries.
- Regulatory channels for half days:Â Typical legal bases are collective bargaining agreements, employment contracts, works agreements, or individual employer decisions. If there is a works council, co-determination rights must be observed.
- Company practice:Â Customary rights may arise if an employer repeatedly grants something – this may give rise to a claim.
Why is “half a day’s vacation” not always enough?
Formally speaking, according to the Federal Leave Acts in most European countries, vacation time is only counted in whole days. Whether half a day of vacation is sufficient for time off, e.g., on Christmas Eve afternoon, is sometimes a matter of interpretation and depends on company regulations as well as local regulations in each country. Many employers require a full day of vacation because the working day (e.g., 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) is considered a unit; others define internally that work is only required until noon on December 24 and December 31. Specific regulations can often be found in collective bargaining agreements or company agreements.
In many cases, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are still defined by employers as “half holidays,” meaning that employees only have to use one vacation day to take both days off. Since employers ultimately benefit employees by granting them half days off, objections are rarely raised here – even though this is not legally correct.
Practical legal pitfalls & tips
Equal treatment and prohibition of arbitrariness
If an employer grants individual employees half days off, they should have comprehensible, objective criteria (e.g., operational processes, customer needs, shift planning) in order to avoid accusations of discrimination. If certain individuals are systematically disadvantaged (e.g., shift workers), this can become legally problematic. (General principle of equal treatment; operational considerations required.)
Co-determination by the workers council
Because this concerns the scheduling and distribution of working hours, the workers council may have co-determination rights – particularly in the case of regulations concerning the start/end or temporary reduction of working hours. Unilateral orders by the employer may therefore violate co-determination obligations.
Documentation & Time Limits
If half days are only intended as a one-time “perk,” it is advisable to regulate this in writing and for a limited period (e.g., “for the years 2024–2026, the employer grants time off on December 24 from 1:00 p.m. onwards”). This reduces the risk of it becoming a company practice.
Vacation accounting: Rounding up and down
When recording vacation days, fractions of vacation days that amount to at least half a day must be rounded up in some countries. This can have an impact on how many vacation days are actually deducted when calculated in days. However, since the two days follow each other in quick succession and together constitute one vacation day, this is usually possible without any problems and tolerated in most countries even if it is not officially allowed.
How can such days be configured in CrewBrain?
For these cases, CrewBrain offers the option of defining a holiday as “not a full day.” This allows Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to be set up in such a way that employees are automatically credited with half of their regular working hours or their target hours are reduced by half accordingly.
To compensate for the second half of the day in question, employees can either work as normal, request flexitime, or take half a day’s vacation. Incidentally, if a vacation lasts several days (e.g., from December 22 to 31), the system will still only deduct half a day’s vacation for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in this configuration.
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This post is also available in de_DE.
