Nowhere near top of leave table

SA’S slacker reputation is unfair

MOST other advanced countries oblige employees to take far more leave than South Africa does, according to a report that explodes the myth that lazy locals get more time off than just about anyone else.

A number of other countries — with some exceptions, such as the US and Japan — mandate about four weeks’ leave, compared with South Africa where the statutory obligation is 15 working days’ leave a year.

A report from the Centre for Economic and Policy Research in the US says that France is the most generous country, with 30 days’ legally mandated leave a year. The US is the least generous country, with employers under no obligation to fund time off at all.

Europe sets a “vacation floor” for all European member countries of four weeks or 20 days a year.

France mandates 30 days of paid annual leave; the UK gives 28 days; Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden give 25; and Germany gives 24 days. Rich countries outside the European Union have generous requirements, too: Australia and New Zealand mandate four weeks of paid leave per year.

This is in addition to public holidays, of which there are eight each year in Australia, 10 in New Zealand, 13 in Austria and Portugal — and only one in France. Most of the world’s rich countries have at least six public holidays a year.

South Africans have 13 public holidays a year — something that business organisations complain costs the country billions of rands in lost productivity every year.

On the less generous side, Canada and Japan require employers to grant 10 days of paid annual leave, but companies in both countries grant an increasing amount of vacation time to staff, depending on how senior they are.

The US is the only advanced economy that does not require employers to provide any paid time off — not even on the country’s public holidays. One in four Americans gets no paid vacation time at all, and the average worker gets 10 days’ paid vacation and six public holidays.

US government surveys show that only half of low-wage workers have any paid leave, compared with 90% of high earners.