Government Calls on the Business Community to Participate in a Day of Pride and National Celebration
ORANJESTAD – Sunday marks Betico Day and is therefore an official public holiday.
Under labor legislation, employees in both the public and private sectors are entitled to the day off, or they receive additional compensation if they are required to work on a public holiday. “However, since this year we are celebrating 40 years of our Status Aparte and 50 years of our national anthem and national flag, we want everyone to celebrate this in a big way,” said Minister of Tourism, Transport and Labor Wendrick Cicilia following the ratification of his decision on the day off by the Council of Ministers.
To ensure that Sunday becomes a national celebration with the highest possible level of participation, it has been decided to also grant civil servants a day off on Monday. This will allow parents to spend time with their children, who will also be free from school on that day.
Because the government can no longer impose a mandatory day off on the private sector, an appeal is being made to the business community to, where possible, provide employees with the opportunity to take an additional day off following the national holiday on Sunday. Minister Cicilia made every effort to extend this day off to the private sector as well, but this proved impossible within the existing legal framework.
It must be clear that Sunday remains the official public holiday. The following day, Monday, is an additional day off offered by the government to its employees. Therefore, if an employee works on Monday, there is no double compensation; additional pay applies only if the employee is required to work on Sunday, January 25, 2026.
It is a fact that changing the day off from Sunday to Monday on such short notice would have caused unforeseen difficulties in various sectors. For this reason, it is emphasized that the additional day off on Monday is an attractive option for both the public and private sectors.
“I agree that we should revert this law to its previous form, in which the minister was able to move a public holiday to a later date if it fell on a weekend. A few years ago, Parliament amended the law, which limited the president’s options.”
