This additional public holiday could be compensated, for example, by abolishing a paid public holiday which falls on a Sunday or another day of inactivity of the year concerned. The federal government’s agreement stipulates that “the federated entities will have the possibility of transforming their public holiday into paid leave”. But “this will have to be done without additional budgetary cost”.
A royal decree had been prepared by Mr. Dermagne, but there was no consensus. The minister proposed to use the place of work as a criterion. Concretely, this meant for Flemings working in Brussels that they would not have a public holiday on July 11, but on the Iris Festival.
According to Jan Jambon, Minister Dermagne sent a new draft royal decree on May 10, asking Flanders if it wanted to make July 11 “or another day” a paid public holiday. The preliminary draft provides for the possibility that these regional public holidays can be replaced by another day at the level of the collective labor agreement or at the level of the company.
According to the Minister-President, the Region has confirmed July 11 and expressed its wish to work with a fixed date. In his view, it is now up to Minister Dermagne to process the opinions of the federated entities and submit a proposal to the federal government.
Tomorrow/Wednesday, the Chamber’s Social Affairs Committee will examine two bills, one tabled by the N-VA, the other by the Vlaams Belang, aimed at establishing this holiday.
During this same session, two bills were also on the agenda, one socialist (Vooruit-PS), the other from the PTB, aimed at making May 8 a public holiday. The socialist proposal aims to make May 8, every five years from 2025, a legal paid holiday to commemorate the victory over Nazism. That of the PTB aims to make this date an annual holiday.