Belgium public holidays 2027 are the ten statutory public holidays of the Royal Decree of 18 April 1974, from New Year's Day on 1 January 2027 to Christmas Day on 25 December 2027. On those days your staff do not work and you keep paying their wages. In 2027, 3 of them fall on a Saturday or Sunday. You replace those with a normal working day and post the notice before 15 December 2026.
Belgium public holidays 2027: the ten days and their weekday
An employee may not be put to work on 10 public holidays a year. The royal decree sets which days. The dates of Easter Monday, Ascension Day and Whit Monday move every year with Easter. This is the 2027 calendar:
| Public holiday | Date 2027 | Weekday | In a five-day week (Mon-Fri) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 1 January 2027 | Friday | day off |
| Easter Monday | 29 March 2027 | Monday | day off |
| Labour Day | 1 May 2027 | Saturday | replace with a working day |
| Ascension Day | 6 May 2027 | Thursday | day off, the Friday after is a bridge day |
| Whit Monday | 17 May 2027 | Monday | day off |
| National Day | 21 July 2027 | Wednesday | day off |
| Assumption Day | 15 August 2027 | Sunday | replace with a working day |
| All Saints' Day | 1 November 2027 | Monday | day off |
| Armistice Day | 11 November 2027 | Thursday | day off, the Friday after is a bridge day |
| Christmas Day | 25 December 2027 | Saturday | replace with a working day |
The dates of the public holidays must be in your work rules. Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday are not on the list: the law names Easter Monday and Whit Monday. The Fridays after Ascension Day and Armistice Day are not public holidays. How to handle those days is explained in bridge days 2027.
Which public holidays 2027 in Belgium fall on a weekend?
Three: 1 May and 25 December on a Saturday, 15 August on a Sunday. If a public holiday falls on a Sunday or a normal non-working day, you replace it with a normal working day of the company. That replacement day then becomes the public holiday. In a five-day week from Monday to Friday, that means three replacement days. If your staff work Monday to Saturday, you only replace 15 August.
Which day it becomes is not a fact written in the law. The law only sets who decides, in this order: the joint committee, then the works council, then you together with the union delegation or, without a delegation, with the employees, and finally an individual agreement. If nobody decides, Article 9 of the Public Holidays Act replaces the holiday with the first normal working day that follows. In a five-day week, that is the following Monday each time.
What is not a statutory public holiday in 2027?
Only the ten days in the table are statutory public holidays. The Federal Public Service Employment puts it this way: a sector or a company can add extra holidays, but these fall outside the Public Holidays Act. For those days, the collective agreement or the work rules apply, not the rules on replacement and holiday pay.
Days that often cause confusion:
- All Souls' Day (2 November 2027), King's Day (15 November 2027) and Boxing Day (26 December 2027). These are holidays for the federal administrations, not for your employees.
- Flemish Community Day (11 July 2027). A community holiday, not a statutory public holiday in the private sector. In 2027 it falls on a Sunday.
- French Community Day (27 September 2027) and Brussels-Capital Region Day (8 May 2027). These are not on the list either.
If you give one of these days off anyway, put it in the work rules or a collective agreement. Every employee then knows where they stand, new hires included. Other kinds of leave, from short leave to parental leave, are in our overview of types of leave in Belgium.
Holiday pay for Belgium public holidays 2027
For a public holiday or a replacement day, you pay the wage as if the employee had worked, including cash bonuses and benefits in kind. A white-collar employee on a fixed monthly salary notices nothing. A blue-collar worker on an hourly wage gets the hourly wage times the hours they would have worked that day. The law provides no supplement or premium for working on a public holiday. A collective agreement or the work rules can. Anyone who works on a public holiday, which is only allowed where Sunday work is allowed, gets compensatory rest within 6 weeks.
During a suspension, payment continues for a while:
- Illness, accident or maternity rest: you pay the public holidays within the first 30 days of the suspension.
- Other suspensions, such as force majeure: the public holidays within the first 14 days.
- Annual leave: the public holiday is always paid and does not count as a leave day.
After the contract ends, you pay the public holidays within the following 30 days if the employee had more than one month of service, or one public holiday within the following 14 days for shorter service. That lapses if they resigned without serious cause, if you dismissed them for serious cause, or as soon as they start with a new employer. The full answer is in does a public holiday have to be paid?.
A detail that costs money: if the employee was absent without justification on the normal working day before or after the public holiday, they have no right to pay for that holiday. A leave day you approved in advance does count as a justification.
Worked example. Sofie is a blue-collar worker, earns € 17 an hour and works eight hours a day, Monday to Friday. She is ill from Monday 25 October 2027. All Saints' Day and Armistice Day fall within the first 30 days of her illness. You pay both as public holidays: 2 x 8 x € 17 = € 272.
Public holidays 2027 in construction
In construction (JC 124) the replacement days are already set. The joint committee replaces 1 May with Friday 7 May 2027, 15 August with Friday 13 August 2027 and Christmas Day with Monday 27 December 2027. A royal decree of 7 September 2026 made that decision binding for the whole sector. A construction worker also has rest days in 2027 that are not public holidays. All dates are in construction leave days 2027.
In other sectors a joint committee can also set replacement days. It had to notify the minister before 1 October 2026, and the decision only takes effect after a royal decree. If you find nothing for your committee, you set the days yourself in the company.
What you arrange in December 2026
- Check what your joint committee decided on the 2027 replacement days.
- Set the replacement days for 1 May, 15 August and 25 December, through the works council, with the union delegation or with the employees.
- Post the notice before 15 December 2026, dated and signed, with the replacement days and the rules for compensatory rest. Attach a copy to the work rules.
- Check the work rules: do they list the dates of the public holidays, and any extra days you give off?
- Plan the bridge days and the collective holiday of 2027 at the same time, so nobody is surprised in May.
What Business Centrum does for you
We enter the 2027 public holidays and replacement days in your payroll, with the correct holiday pay during illness, suspension and after an employee leaves, together with Acerta. We check what is already fixed for your joint committee, prepare the notice for posting and update your work rules. Day-to-day leave management sits in leave and absences. Want to go through the 2027 days before 15 December? Ask us to call you back.