President and church support Left’s proposal to make Christmas Eve day off work in Poland

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

In an unusual alliance, Poland’s conservative president and the Catholic church have voiced their support for a proposal by The Left (Lewica) to make Christmas Eve a day off work.

However, some of The Left’s allies in the ruling coalition have expressed scepticism about the idea, which they say would cost businesses billions of zloty in lost productivity.

Like in many other European countries, Poland’s main Christmas celebration takes place not on the 25 December but on the previous evening, when people gather for the traditional Christmas meal, known as wigilia, and open presents.

However, while 25 and 26 December are officially days off work in Poland, Christmas Eve is not. That often results in a hectic day for Poles, as they try to balance work with Christmas preparations and travel, as well as taking care of children, given that schools are off on 24 December.

On Friday last week, The Left – which is a junior partner in the ruling coalition – submitted a bill to parliament that would make 24 December an official public holiday in addition to the following two days.

The initiative was announced and supported by Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, the minister for family, labour and social policy, who hails from The Left.

“Christmas Eve is for almost everyone a time that we want to spend with family – preparing the wigilia meal, preparing for the coming Christmas – not a time that we want to spend at work,” she said.

The Left expressed hope that the bill could be signed into law in time for Christmas this year, with the group’s spokesman, Łukasz Michnik, saying that they “hope we will be able to convince our coalition partners to support it as soon as possible”.

However, broadcaster RMF reports, based on inside sources, that more business-friendly elements of the ruling coalition – especially from the centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) party – are opposed to the idea.

Critics note that Poland already has 13 annual public holidays and say that adding another one would cost the economy 6 billion zloty (€1.4 billion). Ryszard Petru, a Poland 2050 MP, said he would only support making Christmas Eve a day off work if an existing holiday was removed from the calendar.

Even if the bill does manage to find a majority in parliament, it would still need to be signed into law (or vetoed) by President Andrzej Duda, who is an ally of the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and has regularly clashed with the ruling coalition.

Speaking to broadcaster Radio Zet today, Duda said that he “think[s] it would be good if Christmas Eve was a day off from work; I agree with this idea of The Left”.

“I think it would be especially good for women, who, although not everyone is happy about it, are traditionally responsible for preparing Christmas Eve dishes,” added the president. “It would certainly be easier for women, but also for men, because you have to do your shopping before Christmas Eve and prepare the house.”

Duda also argued that the cost of making Christmas Eve a public holiday would not be huge because, “let’s be honest, in most cases this is already a day of half-hearted work; people leave work because they have to take care of things”.

While The Left is the most anticlerical group in Poland’s parliament, its Christmas Eve proposal has also received support from the Catholic church.

“It’s a good idea,” Waldemar Musioł, the auxiliary bishop of Opole and secretary of the episcopate’s pastoral care commission, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “As a church, we support good initiatives, regardless of their political source.”

“The Left’s proposal to make Christmas Eve a public holiday…is supported not only by a theological argument, which concerns believers, but in our country also by family, social and cultural arguments,” he added.

Two of Poland’s largest trade union groups, Solidarity and OPZZ, have also expressed support for the idea, reports the Infor news service. However, most parties in parliament, both in the ruling coalition and opposition, are yet to take a position on the issue.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Mariusz Cieszewski/Poland.pl/MFA/Flickr (under CC BY-NC 2.0)