Many internationals in the Netherlands are surprised by this situation:

It is a public holiday.
Schools may be closed.
Government offices may be closed.
Some friends are off work.
But your own employer expects you to work.

At first, that feels strange. In many countries, a public holiday automatically means a day off. In the Netherlands, it is not always that simple.

The important thing to understand is this:

A Dutch public holiday is not always the same as a guaranteed free day.

Whether you are free often depends on your employment contract, your employer, or your collective labour agreement, called a CAO in Dutch.

Business.gov.nl explains that there is no general legal obligation for employers to give employees leave on public holidays. Your CAO or employment contract determines whether you get the day off.

That one rule explains a lot of confusion.

The word “holiday” causes part of the problem.

In English, a holiday often sounds like a day when you do not work. In the Netherlands, a public holiday can mean something different.

It can be an official day of national, religious, or cultural significance, without automatically giving every employee a free day.

So when people ask:

“Is Bevrijdingsdag a public holiday?”

The answer can be yes.

But when they ask:

“Do I have the day off on Bevrijdingsdag?”

The answer is: check your contract or CAO.

That is very Dutch in a way. The public system gives the general category, but the practical answer is often found in the agreement that applies to your situation.

The Netherlands has several official public holidays, including New Year’s Day, Easter, King’s Day, Liberation Day, Ascension Day, Pentecost, Christmas, and Good Friday. Government.nl publishes the official list of public holidays in the Netherlands.

Some of these feel very visible in daily life.

King’s Day is hard to miss. The whole country turns orange.

Christmas is widely recognized and many people are off.

Ascension Day and Pentecost are also familiar to many Dutch people, even if not everyone celebrates them religiously.

Good Friday and Liberation Day are where confusion often starts. They are official public holidays, but not everyone automatically has time off.

In the Netherlands, many workers are covered by a CAO. That stands for collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst, or collective labour agreement.

A CAO is an agreement for a sector or group of employees. It can include rules about salary, working hours, leave, pension, and public holidays.

If your sector has a CAO, it may say which public holidays are paid days off.

If you do not have a CAO, your employment contract or company policy becomes even more important.

So the practical order is:

• Check your CAO
• Check your employment contract
• Check your employer’s internal policy
• Ask HR or your manager if it is unclear

Do not rely only on a public holiday calendar. A calendar tells you what the day is. It does not always tell you whether you personally are free.

Bevrijdingsdag, or Liberation Day, is on 5 May. It marks the liberation of the Netherlands after the Second World War and is an important day in Dutch public life.

But it also creates one of the most common workplace questions:

“Why are some people free today, while others are working?”

That confusion is understandable. The day is official and culturally important, but that does not automatically mean every employee has a paid day off.

Whether you are free depends on the agreements that apply to your job. Business.gov.nl states that public holiday leave depends on your CAO or employment contract.

This is why one person may have the day off, while another person in a different sector works as normal.

It is not necessarily unfair or random. It is just agreement based.

Another source of confusion is the difference between work, school, and public life.

A public holiday can affect schools, government services, shops, transport, and offices differently.

For example, your child may be off school while you still need to work. Or a municipality office may be closed while your company remains open. Or some shops may adjust opening hours while others continue normally.

That is why internationals often get mixed signals.

They see signs of a holiday everywhere, but their own workplace situation does not match what they see around them.

The safest assumption is this:

Public life may change on a Dutch public holiday, but your right to a day off depends on your work agreement.

This is another important point.

Public holidays are not the same as your annual leave days.

In the Netherlands, employees are entitled to statutory annual leave. Business.gov.nl explains that employees have a legal minimum amount of annual leave based on their working hours.

Those annual leave days are your vacation days.

Public holidays are separate. Whether they are paid days off depends on your CAO, contract, or company policy.

So when you start a job in the Netherlands, you should understand two things:

1. How many vacation days you receive
2. Which public holidays are treated as days off by your employer
   
   

Both matter.

This depends on your CAO, contract, or company rules.

Some sectors have special rules for working on public holidays. This can include extra pay, time off in return, or a different schedule. Other sectors may treat the day as a normal working day, depending on the agreement.

This is especially relevant in sectors such as healthcare, hospitality, logistics, customer service, retail, and transport. These sectors often cannot simply close for every public holiday.

So if you work shifts or work in a service based role, do not assume. Ask before the holiday arrives.

A useful question is:

“Does our CAO or company policy give extra compensation for working on public holidays?”

That question is clearer than asking only:

“Am I free?”

From the outside, the system can feel inconsistent.

But from the Dutch perspective, it fits the broader way work is organized.

The Netherlands relies heavily on agreements between employers, employees, sectors, unions, and representative bodies. Not every rule is decided only at the national level.

That means two people can both live in the Netherlands, both work full time, and still have different public holiday arrangements.

One person may always be free on certain days.

Another person may work unless their employer closes.

A third person may receive extra compensation for working.

The national calendar gives the shared cultural rhythm. The work agreement gives the practical answer.

The biggest mistake is assuming that “official public holiday” means “I definitely have the day off.”

The second mistake is checking only Google or a holiday calendar.

The third mistake is waiting until the day itself to ask HR.

The fourth mistake is confusing holiday allowance with holiday leave.

Holiday allowance, called vakantiegeld in Dutch, is extra money employees receive, often paid once a year.

Business.gov.nl states that employees are entitled to holiday allowance of at least 8 percent of their gross annual salary.

That is not the same as a day off.

So in Dutch work culture, you may hear several similar words:

Vakantie means vacation.

Vakantiedagen means vacation days.

Vakantiegeld means holiday allowance.

Feestdag means public holiday.

Vrije dag means day off.

These words are related, but they do not mean the same thing.

When you sign a Dutch employment contract, check the holiday section carefully.

Look for answers to these questions:

1. Which public holidays are paid days off?
2. Does the company follow a CAO?
3. What happens if a public holiday falls on your normal non working day?
4. What happens if you work shifts?
5. Do you receive extra pay or time off for working on public holidays?
6. How many annual leave days do you have?
7. When is holiday allowance paid?

If you are not sure, ask HR directly.

This is normal. You are not being difficult. You are simply asking how your employment conditions work.

For employers working with international employees, this topic is worth explaining clearly.

Many internationals will not know that Dutch public holidays are agreement based. If nobody explains it, they may assume the company is doing something unusual or unfair.

A simple onboarding note can prevent confusion.

For example:

“In the Netherlands, public holidays are not always automatic days off. At our company, the following public holidays are paid days off…”

That one explanation can save a lot of questions later.

It also helps international employees understand how Dutch employment culture works: formal rights, contracts, CAOs, and practical agreements all matter.

You do not need fluent Dutch to understand your holiday rights, but basic Dutch helps a lot.

Employment contracts, HR portals, CAO documents, payroll information, and government pages often use Dutch words that are easy to mix up.

Words like feestdag, vakantiedagen, verlof, vrij, doorbetaald, and cao appear often in work related documents.

Understanding these words makes daily life less dependent on translation tools. It also helps you ask better questions at work.

That is the practical reason language matters. Not because you need perfect Dutch to live here, but because the system becomes easier to understand when the key words are no longer unfamiliar.

Before the next public holiday, do this:

1. Check whether your employer follows a CAO
2. Read the public holiday section in your contract
3. Check your company calendar
4. Ask HR which public holidays are paid days off
5. Ask what happens if you work on a public holiday
6. Do not assume your friend’s situation also applies to you
7. Learn the basic Dutch words for leave, holiday, and public holidays

The main lesson is simple:

In the Netherlands, the public holiday calendar tells you what the country recognizes. Your contract or CAO tells you what happens at work.