Lay-offs and public holidays
When you are laid off, weekday public holidays and compensation paid for them can affect your earnings-related daily allowance in different ways. Compensation for public weekday holidays live in the darkest corners of the Unemployment Security Act and explaining them requires courage and patience.
The unbearable complexity of compensation for weekday public holidays
In certain sectors, compensation for weekday public holidays can be paid separately. In other sectors, there is no separate compensation, but a weekday holiday will not reduce the pay for that week. And in some sectors, a weekday holiday will reduce the pay for that week. In addition to this, we also consider the following: the way you were laid off, whether you work part-time for your employer or another employer, and whether you are a part-time entrepreneur.
COMPENSATION FOR A WEEKDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY IS PAID SEPARATELY
- If compensation for a weekday public holiday is paid separately, in the Unemployment Security Act, it is considered a day for which a benefit is paid. According to the law, you can be paid benefits for no more than five days each calendar week. Then again, if adjustment is applied, compensation for a weekday public holiday is also considered income.
- If you are completely unemployed or have been laid off full-time, you are not usually paid compensation for a weekday public holiday. This means that weekday public holidays will not affect your earnings-related daily allowance. For example, if you are paid compensation for one weekday public holiday, we can only pay you earnings-related daily allowance for four days in that week. In other words, you will miss one day of the earnings-related daily allowance here.
- If you are laid off and work a shorter working week and you are paid compensation for one weekday public holiday, we can only pay you earnings-related daily allowance for four days in that week. In other words, you will miss one day of the earnings-related daily allowance here.
- If you are laid off and work a shorter working day, or if you have income from a part-time job, or if you are a part-time entrepreneur, adjustment will apply to you. In that case, we will consider the compensation for a weekday public holiday in the adjustment and it will reduce your earnings-related daily allowance a little. See here for more information on how the earnings-related daily allowance is calculated if adjustment is applied.
A WEEKDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY WILL NOT REDUCE YOUR PAY
In certain sectors, weekday public holidays are not working days, so they will not reduce the pay. In these cases, no earnings-related daily allowance is paid for a weekday public holiday. This is because the reason for losing money is the weekday public holiday, not unemployment. This weekday public holiday can also be counted as a day for which compensation is paid. The law says that there can be no more than five of these days in one calendar week.
- If you are completely unemployed or you are laid off full-time, weekday public holidays make no difference to your earnings-related daily allowance.
- If you are laid off and work a shorter working week and the weekday public holiday does not reduce your pay, we can only pay you earnings-related daily allowance for four days in that week. In other words, you will miss one day of the earnings-related daily allowance.
- If you are laid off and you work a shorter working day, or if you have income from a part-time job, or if you are part-time entrepreneur, adjustment will be applied to you. Because you are not paid separate compensation for a weekday public holiday, it will not directly reduce your earnings-related daily allowance. However, when your pay is not reduced, the pay used in adjustment may be more than your pay would be based on your work alone. This means that the reduction in you daily allowance may also be bigger. In some cases, you may exceed the maximum euro limit set for adjustment, and we will be unable to pay any daily allowance. You should also remember that the maximum number of days in a week for which compensation is paid is five. For this reason, we may sometimes be unable to pay a daily allowance because we would exceed the maximum number of days.
A WEEKDAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY WILL REDUCE YOUR PAY
We can pay you normal earnings-related allowance if no separate compensation is paid for a weekday public holiday, and the weekday public holiday will reduce your pay. In these cases, it means that a weekday public holiday during your lay-off will not affect your earnings-related daily allowance.
However, the employer must comply with the Employment Contracts Act and the applicable collective agreement. If the employer fails to pay the appropriate compensation for a weekday public holiday or deducts the public holiday from your pay without justification, the unemployment fund cannot ignore the issue when paying daily allowances.
How do I note weekday public holidays in my application for daily allowance?
If you receive compensation for a weekday public holiday, or if the public holiday does not reduce your pay, enter "at work" in your application and enter the number of working hours that is equivalent to the compensation you receive. Please indicate in the additional information that it was a weekday public holiday. This will stop the application and give us a chance to check the correct solution.