Americans, you need more holidays!!!

[Gob]

In theory, the summer is over here. We've just had August Bank Holiday, the British equivalent of Labor Day, the last official three-day weekend of the summer.

Guaranteed paid vacations don't take a lot of getting used to, even if the weather is variable

But the little development of flats I live in is still quiet. A majority of folks still seem to be on vacation.

Not me, of course. I may have lived in Britain for 25 years but I'm an American by birth, self-employed, and so after nine days away, I'm back in harness, ready for action.

And as most of my work this week involves organising a lecture tour in the US in the autumn, I am having a productive time. It may be the last week of summer in the land of my birth but almost everybody I need to be in touch with in America is at their desk sounding harassed as ever.

When people speak of the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism, what they are usually referring to is the remarkable Anglo-American coincidence that Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan came to office at the same time and shared identical economic philosophies and policy gurus.

Those days are gone and the Anglo-Saxon model is more nostalgia than reality. But even in the headiest days of the Iron Lady and the Gipper, one place where the model didn't hold was on the issue of paid annual leave.

Who gets what holiday?


British workers get generous guarantees of time off, currently 20 days a year. That is one full month of paid leave. Judiciously planned around public holidays, it means this country basically shuts down for most of August and between Christmas and New Year.

It's not just Britain where good vacation is the norm.

The figures in a 2007 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) are stark. It looked at 21 of the richest countries in the world, and found that only one, the US, does not impose a legal mandate on employers to provide time off.

Obviously, people in America do get paid annual leave, but for most wage earners it is subject to so many different calculations based on seniority and how much you earn, it can only be described as miserly.

In other words, it is a privilege to be earned rather than a normal part of compensation.

Nine days of annual leave is what the average American accrues during the course of a year. So you have to be at your job for 12 months before you begin to get even that amount.

If you figure that folks might take a day or two at Christmas, maybe Thanksgiving, and keep a day or two in the bank for a family emergency, what you're left with come the good weather is a week of vacation if you're lucky.


The difference between American attitudes to vacation and those of Britons and others is hard to explain.

I have worked for wages on both sides of the Atlantic and the experience is broadly comparable. Yet no British worker - nor most British employers - would accept such little vacation entitlement.

Holidays as part of compensation are one of the small, subtle things that keep a workplace happy. Happy workers are productive workers in ways that can't be measured statistically.

Whenever citing Americans' acceptance of the longer hours they work or their lack of paid leave, the cliche is to say it goes back to the country's Puritan heritage or the Protestant work ethic.

I disagree. I think it comes from raw fear.

Most Americans are not descended from Puritan stock. The people I have worked with in a variety of jobs - I wasn't always a journalist - would have liked nothing more than a guarantee of 20 days of paid holiday a year.

But since the heyday of Thatcher and Reagan, they have been increasingly afraid to ask for it directly and way too afraid to come together and demand it as a group.

It is easy enough to get fired in the US, and when people have a job they tend not to want to make waves.

It's a shame really. In a country where economic insecurity is resulting in a disturbingly aggressive public debate - disturbing, at least, to one American expat - it would probably be a good thing for employers to start paying their workers to take extra chill time.

The benefit to society would be immediate because the thing is, guaranteed paid vacations don't take a lot of getting used to.


For all their pride in working longer hours with no vacation than anyone else, I think Americans could adjust very quickly to having paid down time.

Take the case of a colleague who worked for the International Herald Tribune in Paris. The Trib is owned by The New York Times and like most of its minuscule staff, he was on assignment from New York.

We met for lunch while I was in Paris researching a book a couple of years ago, and as we ate he told me he was taking the following week off. It was March, not vacation season, and I asked him why he was taking it then.

He told me he worked under French employment rules and was legally obliged to take his vacation allocation. He said he couldn't use it all up in the summer, as there were too many weeks he had to take.

So he was grabbing some time out of season in England, in Cambridge. American readers won't know what the weather in that ancient university town is like in late winter, but he was not going to have to pack shorts.

Still he cackled with glee as he bragged on this situation. He seemed so relaxed and happy I let him pick up the tab for lunch.

Anyway, things aren't likely to be getting better in the US.

The CEPR statistics I mentioned above date back a few years. In the current economic climate, where people are losing their jobs in droves, if they are lucky enough to find new employment they will go to the bottom of the seniority list and have to accrue vacation days from the beginning.

My guess is that the next such analysis will show Americans having less paid holiday than ever.

Michael Goldfarb is a journalist and broadcaster who has lived in London since 1985. Formerly with National Public Radio, he is now the London correspondent of globalpost.com.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11139960

[dales]

Yeah, it sux to live here, that's why people risk their lives to enter illegally.

[Scooter]

Lots of Finns, Danes, Austrians and Spaniards climbing over each other to get in, are there then?

[Gob]

Yeah, it sux to live here, that's why people risk their lives to enter illegally.

a) No one said it sucks to live there.
b) Can you name me a first world country that doesn't have an illegal immigration problem?
c) Would you not like more holidays?

BTW, did you not notice it was written by an American?

[Gob]

Just looking at my pay slip, I have 5 weeks annual leave to use before Feb, and I have 18 weeks personal leave available.

Hen has accured 4 months of long service leave, which will come in handy when we move back to the UK. I should be geting my first tranch of LSL, next year sometime.

[dales]

Great!

and scoot, you have NOWHERE NEAR THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PROBLEM THAT THE USA HAS!

Look what's coming down in AZ not to mention TX, NM, or CA.

We've called out the National Guard fercrisakes!

[rubato]

Just looking at my pay slip, I have 5 weeks annual leave to use before Feb, and I have 18 weeks personal leave available.

Hen has accured 4 months of long service leave, which will come in handy when we move back to the UK. I should be geting my first tranch of LSL, next year sometime.

We invented computers, the internet, biotech, you invented??? You invented??

Oh, right. Nothing.

If your work is of little value to begin with then it doesn't matter if you take months off every year.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Great!

and scoot, you have NOWHERE NEAR THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PROBLEM THAT THE USA HAS!

Look what's coming down in AZ not to mention TX, NM, or CA.

We've called out the National Guard fercrisakes!

This has nothing to do with holidays, or the economic consequence of holidays, how about you start a new thread eh?

[The Hen]

We actually have more public holidays than shown on the chart. I reckon on 9 paid days per year.

Rubato, we have invented enough.

I am sorry that you only get such a bum deal on annual leave. I put that down to unions. We have excellent union representation that works to our advantage.

[loCAtek]

A union? Vacation? What are these things of which you speak?

I work six days a week normally, of which I'm thankful. Don't have time nor funds to take 'days off'. If I do that the 20 hours overtime I work, aren't paid time and a half, so whats the point of not working?

[Gob]

Life isn't about work. Work is a necessary evil, which pays for me, and my family, to enjoy the things in life we cherish.

Holidays, both at home and abroad rate highly amongst the things we cherish.

If all works out Hen and I will be semi-retiring in the next five years, in order to enjoy more fully the things we do. This may mean cutting back on some of the spending we do on things not entirely essential, it may also involve working full time at times, for period, to afford trips over seas etc.

Again, it comes down to balance.

[loCAtek]

I can't afford balance, I need food, shelter and ammo.

[dales]

Lots of Finns, Danes, Austrians and Spaniards climbing over each other to get in, are there then?

Great!

and scoot, you have NOWHERE NEAR THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PROBLEM THAT THE USA HAS!

Look what's coming down in AZ not to mention TX, NM, or CA.

We've called out the National Guard fercrisakes!

This has nothing to do with holidays, or the economic consequence of holidays, how about you start a new thread eh?

Only responding to scooter, there mate.

You're right aboout a thread digression, I ll go to the other place for that.

[dales]

I can't afford balance, I need food, shelter and ammo.

LOL.....ROTHLMFAO!

[Scooter]

Only responding to scooter, there mate.

And I was only pointing out that your original comment which was a complete non sequitur.

[Gob]

oh no, not more holiday?

Queenslanders could be treated to an extraordinary five-day long weekend next year.

The government is considering extending the usual four-day Easter break because Easter Monday and Anzac Day coincide on the same day.

The issue was raised in parliament this morning, as the government put forward its amendment to add two public holidays to the upcoming festive calendar.

With Christmas and New Year's days falling on Saturdays this summer, the corresponding public holidays were automatically postponed to weekdays.

The government intends to amend legislation to ensure those left working on the celebratory days will be compensated.

A similar amendment could be made for Easter 2011.

Premier Anna Bligh said in parliament this morning the government was consulting with churches and the RSL about shifting the Easter Monday public holiday to the Tuesday, as Anzac Day must be observed on the actual day.

"We may have an unusual circumstance next year with a five-day Easter break," Ms Bligh told parliament.

Unions complained when in 2009 weekday workers did not receive a day off in lieu of Anzac Day falling on a Saturday.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensl ... rom=smh_ft

[Big RR]

Just looking at my pay slip, I have 5 weeks annual leave to use before Feb, and I have 18 weeks personal leave available.

Hen has accured 4 months of long service leave, which will come in handy when we move back to the UK. I should be geting my first tranch of LSL, next year sometime.

We invented computers, the internet, biotech, you invented??? You invented??

Oh, right. Nothing.

If your work is of little value to begin with then it doesn't matter if you take months off every year.

yrs,
rubato

Gee--with all that going for us no wonder we have such a booming economy, low to no unemployment, and a lifestyle that's the envy of the world. Look how well things are going right now.

Come on rubato, most people work much better when they have some time to decompress every so often, which is what holidays are for. They're not just for people whose work "doesn't matter"; indeed, if someone is so insecure that they refuse to take a holiday, I'd bet it's more because they know others would see how little they really do.

[Andrew D]

We have a prevailing ideology pursuant to which a "free" market is one that takes no account of inequalities in bargaining power and that insists that corporations have "rights". Unions, which were for decades one of the great engines of the development of the American middle class, have largely fallen by the wayside due to a relentless right-wing onslaught. The indisputable corruption of some unions* has been dressed up as typical,
even though most of what unions do is bargain for decent wages and working conditions for groups ("bargaining units") of employees and defend individual employees against unjust treatment.** Corporate employers have engaged in a long (and lamentably successful) campaign of union-busting (insisting on their corporate "rights"), right-wing courts have eviscerated workers' legal protections, and right-wing administrations have refused to enforce what little remains of those protections.

It is not an accident that even though pro-illegal-immigrant (sorry; "undocumented worker") advocacy groups are staffed and spoken for largely by liberals, the funding that buys members of Congress of both parties opposes doing something about America's illegal immigration problem comes largely from corporate (especially agribusiness) interests that profit from the abundance of illegal aliens (oops): If you want to depress wages generally, there's nothing like having an available pool of people who will work for next to nothing.

Americans used to understand that in order to stand on an equal footing with corporate interests, workers have to combine into groups that can wield collective bargaining power. And if that statement inclines you to think that I am some sort of socialist, please be prepared to address the fact that the stockholders of a corporation are a collective acting in concert (oh the horror!) to further their interests. Unfortunately, we have been largely bamboozled out of that grasp of reality.

* I was a Teamster when the Teamsters' Union was taken over by the government because of its rampant corruption (especially its hip-deep involvement with organized crime). No one was happier than I when the government seized the reins of Teamsters' power. The union's having been "mobbed up" had never done a damn thing for me or the people I worked with. (And even if it had, its criminal conduct -- which had nothing to do with me or my fellow workers -- would still have been revolting.) If anything, organized crime bled off funds that (a) could have inured to the workers' benefit and (b) could have increased the employer's revenues, thereby more favorably disposing the employer towards agreeing to what the workers wanted.

** I was the shop steward when I was a Teamster. I had to tell one worker "Sorry, but there's nothing I can do for you: You got busted for about the dozenth time sleeping on the job." I had to tell another worker "Sorry, but there's nothing I can do for you: We work with the public, and there is a very high proportion of children in that public; you can't get into what amounts to a barroom brawl out in the open and cause frightened parents to flee with their screaming children."

On the other hand, I once had to defend an employee against the accusation that he had returned the wrong credit card slip (back in the day when we used those roller thingies to imprint card information onto receipts) to a customer when the customer returned a baby stroller. (Long story. We rented strollers to patrons, we were required to take deposits -- the strollers were crap, but people tried to steal them anyway -- and many of the deposits were done by credit cards.) The employer tried to blame the problem on the worker whose initials were in the part of the relevant form that indicated which worker had rented out the stroller. Had it not been for the union, the worker might well have been fired, despite the undisputed fact that the error was committed not by the worker who had rented out the stroller but by the worker who had accepted the return of the stroller. (And there was no place on the relevant form to record which worker had accepted the return of the stroller.)

In short, had it not been for the union, the worker might well have been fired for something which the employer had not a shred of evidence that the worker had anything to do with. (And, in fact, the worker had had nothing to do with it; he wasn't even working at the balloon/stroller stand when the error occurred.) But Americans are routinely indoctrinated by pseudo-conservative politicians (which is to say lackeys of their corporate masters) into an anti-union ideology which diverts attention from the quotidian benefits unions provide to the easily sensationalised wrongs which unions commit -- all the while turning a blind eye to the vastly greater wrongs committed as a matter of course by the corporate interests which promote that indoctrination in every available way.

[Gob]

Awww.... not more?

Released 15/09/2010

ACT Minister for Industrial Relations, Katy Gallagher, is reminding Canberrans that the Family and Community Day public holiday will be celebrated on Monday 27 September.

"Changes to the ACT's Holidays Act 1958 in 2009 now provide that, from this year, the FIRST Monday in the school holidays after Term 3 each year will be Family and Community Day," Ms Gallagher said.

"That means that this year Family and Community Day will be celebrated on Monday the 27th of September," she said.

"However, where the first Monday of the school holidays falls on the currently designated Labour Day public holiday, such as will occur in 2011 and 2012, then Family and Community Day will be observed on the following Monday.

"Observing this public holiday during the school holidays will also assist working parents.

"Family and Community Day 2010 also coincides with Canberra's popular spring festival ‘Floriade' and provides yet another opportunity to head down to Commonwealth Park and enjoy a relaxing day out with your family."

The Minister said prior to the gazetting of Family and Community Day, the public holiday was known as ‘Union Picnic Day'. This public holiday allowed thousands of workers to have the day off to spend time with their families.

"Family and Community Day was introduced to protect this entitlement lost under the former Liberal Government's WorkChoices legislation which outlawed union picnic day," Ms Gallagher said.

"Whilst union picnic day is no longer, Family and Community Day remains a day to spend time with family and perhaps enjoy a picnic at Floriade."

http://www.chiefminister.act.gov.au/media.php?v=9955

[loCAtek]

I think you're turning Japanese.