How to Schedule Holidays at Christmas: Rules, Criteria and Best Practices for Companies

The Christmas season is traditionally one of the periods of the year in which the greatest number of employees wish to exercise their right to holidays. Balancing the personal needs of employees with the operational demands of companies can prove to be a significant challenge. Therefore, it is essential for organisations to plan this period in advance, ensuring compliance with the law and an efficient management of internal resources.

Holiday scheduling must take into consideration, first and foremost, the interests of the employees, but it must not jeopardise the needs or “imperative requirements” related to the functioning of the company. If no agreement is reached between the employee and the employer on the scheduling of holidays, the final decision lies with the employer, who must communicate the respective holiday schedule in good time.

The law does not establish any special regime applicable to the Christmas period, although it is common for companies to need to implement organisational mechanisms to manage employees’ holiday requests and their expectations.

According to their needs, companies may choose to close fully or partially during the Christmas holidays, with the law providing that this period may last 5 consecutive working days during the Christmas season.

When it is not possible to grant holidays to all employees during the desired period, the employer must adopt transparent and objective criteria for their allocation, and the law recommends the adoption of an annual rotation system, so that those who have taken holidays at Christmas in a given year do not have priority in the following year.

It is therefore recommended, as a good practice for companies, that management tools be adopted in good time within the organisation to ensure compliance with the applicable legislation, prevent the occurrence of administrative offences, and facilitate the allocation of human resources.

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