When a public holiday falls on a Sunday or on a day your business does not normally work, you grant a replacement public holiday on an ordinary working day. In 2027 that means three days in a five-day week: 1 May, 15 August and 25 December. You post the notice with the replacement days before 15 December 2026.
Which public holidays must you replace in 2027?
An employee is entitled to 10 paid public holidays a year. If one falls on a Sunday or a normal non-working day, it loses its status as a public holiday and the replacement day becomes the holiday. A normal non-working day is a day on which, under your working arrangements, nobody normally works. In most SMEs, that is Saturday.
| Public holiday 2027 | Day | Five-day week (Mon-Fri) | Six-day week (Mon-Sat) | Four-day week (Mon-Thu) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Year, 1 January | Friday | replace | ||
| Easter Monday, 29 March | Monday | |||
| Labour Day, 1 May | Saturday | replace | replace | |
| Ascension Day, 6 May | Thursday | |||
| Whit Monday, 17 May | Monday | |||
| National Day, 21 July | Wednesday | |||
| Assumption, 15 August | Sunday | replace | replace | replace |
| All Saints' Day, 1 November | Monday | |||
| Armistice Day, 11 November | Thursday | |||
| Christmas, 25 December | Saturday | replace | replace |
For comparison, there were two replacement days in 2026, for 15 August (Saturday) and 1 November (Sunday).
If several full-time arrangements exist side by side in your business, you look at each one separately. A warehouse worker on Monday to Friday gets a replacement day for 1 May 2027, even if the shop team works on Saturdays.
Who sets the replacement public holiday?
The law sets a fixed order:
- The joint committee (JC). A sector decision takes priority if it was made binding by royal decree. For 2027, the committee had to notify the minister before 1 October 2026.
- The works council, if there is no sector decision.
- The employer with the union delegation, or without a delegation, directly with the employees.
- An individual agreement between you and the employee.
If nothing is set at any level, the first normal working day after the public holiday replaces it automatically. You can also agree that the employee chooses the replacement day, like a day of annual leave. To find out which committee applies to you, read our explainer on the joint committee.
Replacement public holiday by sector: construction, transport and hospitality
Construction (JC 124). The social partners in construction have set the 2027 replacement days: 7 May 2027 for 1 May, 13 August 2027 for 15 August and 27 December 2027 for Christmas. The FPS Employment has not yet added this decision to its official list; check that it is unchanged before you post the notice. Construction also has collective compensatory rest days, which are not public holidays. More on the sector in our guide to JC 124.
Transport (JC 140). The official list of the Federal Public Service Employment shows no sector decision for 2027. So you set the days yourself in the business. If a driver works on a public holiday, in road haulage you pay 200% of the wage and grant compensatory rest.
Hospitality (JC 302). No sector decision here either. If your business runs seven days a week, there is no normal non-working day. A public holiday that falls on an employee's fixed rest day is then replaced by one of their working days. Anyone who works on a public holiday gets a premium of € 2 per hour, up to € 12 per day, plus compensatory rest.
How do you announce the replacement public holiday?
- Check whether your sector has already decided. The Federal Public Service Employment publishes the decisions made binding in a table linked to the public holidays act.
- Set the days in the works council, with the union delegation or with the employees.
- Draw up a notice, dated and signed, with the replacement days and the rules for compensatory rest.
- Post it on the business premises before 15 December 2026.
- Attach a copy to your work rules (arbeidsreglement). The dates of the public holidays are already in the rules. How to build them is explained in drawing up work rules.
A model notice, here with the construction days:
Replacement days for public holidays 2027. In 2027, three public holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday. They are replaced as follows: Saturday 1 May by Friday 7 May 2027, Sunday 15 August by Friday 13 August 2027 and Saturday 25 December by Monday 27 December 2027. Anyone who works on a public holiday gets compensatory rest within 6 weeks, in agreement with their manager. Ghent, 1 December 2026. Signature of the employer.
Replacement public holiday for part-time employees and shifts
Part-time with a fixed schedule. The employee gets the public holidays and replacement days that fall on their normal working days. Their own days off are not non-working days in the legal sense. You look at the full-time colleagues in the same category. If 1 May 2027 falls on their non-working Saturday, you set a replacement day for everyone. If the part-timer works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the replacement day is a Friday, they lose it.
Part-time with a variable schedule. A public holiday on a working day is paid according to the hours they would have worked. For a public holiday outside their working days, you pay a wage equal to what they earned in the previous 4 weeks, divided by the number of days the business worked in that period. They do not get a replacement day.
Working on a public holiday. If your sector may work on Sundays, it may also work on public holidays. The employee gets compensatory rest within 6 weeks: a full day if they worked more than 4 hours, otherwise half a day. A part-timer gets rest equal to the hours actually worked. You notify the competent inspector no later than 8 days after the public holiday, and in any case before the day of compensatory rest.
What do you pay for a replacement public holiday?
The pay is the same as if the employee had worked, with the usual premiums. A white-collar employee on a fixed monthly salary notices nothing. A blue-collar worker paid by the hour gets their hourly wage times the hours they would have worked that day.
During a suspension, payment continues for a while. For illness, an accident or maternity leave, you pay the public holidays in the first 30 days of the suspension; for other suspensions, in the first 14 days. Public holidays during annual leave are always paid.
Worked example. Kevin is a blue-collar worker at a construction firm, earns € 18 an hour and works eight hours a day. You dismiss him with a notice period ending on 3 December 2027, after three years' service.
- On Friday 7 May 2027 he does not work. You pay 8 x € 18 = € 144.
- Monday 27 December 2027 falls within 30 days after his contract ends. He was employed for more than a month, so you also pay that replacement day: € 144.
- If Kevin starts with a new employer on 13 December, that payment lapses.
If an employee was employed between 15 days and a month, you pay one public holiday within 14 days after the end.
Mistakes we often see
- Posting the notice only in January. For 2027, the notice must be up before 15 December 2026.
- Forgetting the sector decision. In construction the days are fixed; choosing your own on top leads to double days off or disputes.
- Overlooking part-timers. Their right depends on the full-time arrangement of their category, not on their own days off.
- Not granting compensatory rest within 6 weeks to anyone who worked on a public holiday.
- No holiday pay after dismissal in the 30 days after the contract ends.
Other short paid absences, such as a wedding or a funeral, fall under short leave for family events.
What Business Centrum does for you
We check which replacement days are already fixed for your joint committee, prepare the 2027 notice ready to post and add it to your work rules. In payroll, we book public holidays, compensatory rest and holiday pay after a dismissal correctly, together with Acerta. Leave management itself sits in our leave and absence service.