As South Africa enters into a prolonged 4-workday week period, many will be taking the time off to relax, dreading the return to ‘normality’ in April.<\/p>\n
With only ‘Youth Day’ (16 June) falling on a Saturday this year, South Africans who typically work 9-5 are also set to receive bumper time off in 2018 – with the country currently celebrating 12 mandatory public holidays under the Basic Conditions Employment Act.<\/p>\n
And while the country ranks highly in this regard, it’s not the highest according to the Telegraph<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>and labour consultants Mercer,\u00a0<\/b>with both India and Colombia celebrating 18 public holidays each year.<\/p>\n They are followed by Thailand,\u00a0Lebanon,\u00a0South Korea and Japan (all with 16 public holidays), and Argentina and Chile which both boast 15 public holidays.<\/p>\n At the lower end of the scale, Mexico has just seven public holidays, while the UK, Hungary and the Netherlands have eight public holidays.<\/p>\n Mercer said that religious observances are the most common reasons for national time off, with independence days also granting a fair number of days off too.<\/p>\n Notably\u00a0Thailand has three days’ holiday for Thai New Year \u2013 Songkran festival \u2013 while Muslim countries are granted three or four days for Eid al-Adha.<\/p>\n