The Economic Chamber of Macedonia will submit draft amendments to the Law on Holidays to the Ministry of Economy and Labour, aimed, they say, at boosting productivity. The proposal has two parts. Instead of all religious holidays, workers would pick only some to celebrate and work through the rest. A state holiday that falls on a Sunday would no longer be moved to Monday.

Right now all citizens share 11 common days off. Orthodox believers get another five, Catholics three, Muslims one more, and members of the communities get one day each. The ministry's programme for 2026 lists 27 days off in total, though nobody uses all of them, since some apply only to particular groups. The proposal would indirectly bring the number of days off down to 13.

The chamber points to an analysis of 36 European economies with an average of 11 to 14 days off, and argues that once religious holidays are added, Macedonia ranks among the countries with the most holidays. Project manager Aneta Dimovska says the proposal does not abolish holidays but revises entitlements, and that workers often bridged the days together and headed off to neighbouring countries.

Two things are missing. Employers have done no analysis of how much companies lose while workers are home for the holidays, nor of how much they would earn if those workers were on the job. And the unions were not even consulted - Dimovska herself admitted the Federation of Trade Unions had not been informed.

The reply came straight away. "The Chamber of Commerce talks about cutting holidays, but you never hear them talk about paying!" wrote Slobodan Trendafilov, president of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia. If Europe is the model for the number of holidays, will it also be the model for wages?