As a sign that Belgians are resuming pre-pandemic habits, workers took far more time off during the spring holiday period than in the previous two years, when Covid-19 saw many save up holidays given that there were significant travel restrictions.
The new figures were revealed on Sunday by human resources company Acerta, who surveyed 260,000 workers at over 40,000 private companies. During the holiday period 4–18 April, 6.9% of annual working days were taken as holiday. In total, this represents an almost sixfold increase on 2021 and is just shy of 2019 figures.
Acerta sees this as a positive development, stating that "spreading holidays over the course of the year is healthy, both for employees and companies."
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During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Belgian workers overwhelmingly waited for periods of less restrictions in order to take their holidays. This not only led to surges in demand during times of non-confinement, it also made it very difficult for employers to plan yearly schedules as holidays were spread unevenly across the year.
A quarter of working Belgians took holiday during the Easter period this year.
