The 2027 public holiday calendar in Belarus is markedly leaner than 2026. Six of the ten non-working days set by Presidential Decree No. 157 of 26 March 1998 fall on a Saturday or Sunday, and under Article 139 of the Trudovoy kodeks (Labour Code, as amended to 1 January 2024) those days are simply not moved: no substitute day off follows. For anyone on a standard five-day week, that leaves just five weekday days off across the whole year, compared with eight in 2026. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection has confirmed the working-time norm for 2027 rises by 26 hours as a result.

The official 2027 calendar

The framework for non-working holidays is permanent: Presidential Decree No. 157 of 26 March 1998 (most recently amended by Presidential Decree No. 141 of 9 April 2024) lists ten non-working days. The annual twist comes from the Council of Ministers, which may move individual working days to Saturdays under Article 136 (part six) of the Labour Code. For 2027, Council of Ministers Resolution No. 499 of 3 October 2026 makes exactly one such transfer: working day Monday 10 May moves to Saturday 8 May. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection has confirmed all 2027 dates below, including Radunitsa (the day of commemoration of the departed), which follows the Orthodox calendar and falls on 11 May.

• 1 January (Friday): New Year
• 2 January (Saturday): New Year, second day (weekend, no substitute day)
• 7 January (Thursday): Christmas (Orthodox)
• 8 March (Monday): Women's Day
• 1 May (Saturday): Labour Day (weekend, no substitute day)
• 8 May (Saturday): working day - worked in place of Monday 10 May
• 9 May (Sunday): Victory Day (weekend, no substitute day)
• 10 May (Monday): day off transferred from Saturday 8 May - not itself a public holiday
• 11 May (Tuesday): Radunitsa
• 3 July (Saturday): Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus (Day of the Republic) (weekend, no substitute day)
• 7 November (Sunday): October Revolution Day (weekend, no substitute day)
• 25 December (Saturday): Christmas (Catholic) (weekend, no substitute day)

Several dates are celebrated but remain ordinary working days because they do not appear on the non-working list under Decree No. 157:

• Day of the Fatherland's Defenders and the Armed Forces: 23 February (Tuesday)
• Constitution Day: 15 March (Monday)
• Day of Unity of the Peoples of Belarus and Russia: 2 April (Friday)
• Day of People's Unity: 17 September (Friday)
• Dzyady (Day of Remembrance): 2 November (Tuesday)

Easter is also not a non-working day. In 2027, Catholics and Protestants observe it on 28 March and Orthodox Christians on 2 May; both dates fall on a Sunday. As neg.by has clarified, Easter is not declared a non-working day under point 3 of Decree No. 157 and so wages for any Easter shift worked according to the schedule are calculated as for an ordinary working day.

Why 2027 means more hours at work

Article 139 of the Labour Code states plainly that when a scheduled day off coincides with a state holiday or public holiday, the day off is not moved and no other day of rest is given. In 2027 that rule catches six holidays: 2 January, 1 May, 9 May, 3 July, 7 November and 25 December. For anyone working Monday to Friday, none of those six produces extra time away from the office or the factory floor.

The practical consequence shows up in the annual working-time norm. Ministry of Labour and Social Protection resolution No. 81 of 6 October 2026 sets the 2027 norm at 2,050 hours for a five-day week, which is 26 hours more than the 2,024 hours of 2026. The six-day-week norm rises from 2,019 to 2,031 hours. The norm is based on 8-hour days, with each working day immediately before a holiday shortened by one hour as Article 116 of the Labour Code requires. Put plainly, five-day-week staff get five weekday days off in 2027 against eight in 2026.

Council of Ministers Resolution No. 499 creates one compensating bridge: Monday 10 May becomes a day off, Saturday 8 May becomes a working day, and the result is a three-day break running from Victory Day (Sunday 9 May) through the transferred day off (Monday 10 May) to Radunitsa (Tuesday 11 May). The government described the change as allowing a more balanced distribution of work and rest periods. Point 2 of Resolution No. 499 also allows organisations, taking into account the specifics of their production, to move the working Saturday to a different Saturday rather than 8 May - so it is worth checking your employer's internal order.

Because the transfer is set by a Council of Ministers resolution - a normative legal act - it is binding on employers. Aleksei Shteiner, who served for many years at the Gomel regional office of the State Labour Inspection Department under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, explained on neg.by that an employee cannot refuse to work the transferred day.

Working on a public holiday: pay, rules and fines

Article 147 of the Labour Code permits work on non-working holidays only in four specific situations:

• Work that cannot be stopped for production or technological reasons (continuously operating organisations)
• Services that must run without interruption for the population or organisations
• Mass events held in the established order - only at the employer's proposal and with the employee's written consent
• Urgent repair and loading or unloading work

In organisations that operate continuously, holiday shifts are planned in advance in the work or shift schedule and fall within the monthly working-time norm.

The pay entitlement sits in Article 69 of the Labour Code. For every hour worked on a non-working holiday, you receive your normal pay for that period plus an additional payment on top of it. For piece-rate workers the extra is at least the applicable piece rates; for time-rate workers it is at least the hourly tariff rate or salary. In practice, a time-rate worker earns at least twice the hourly rate for each holiday hour worked. That floor is what the Code guarantees; a contract or local legal act can go higher. In budget organisations, the precise figure is set by the Government under Council of Ministers Resolution No. 583 of 16 June 2014 (as amended by Resolutions No. 269 of 30 April 2019 and No. 50 of 28 January 2020). In other organisations it is fixed by the employment contract or a local legal act.

Can a day off replace the extra payment? Article 69 (part three) allows that swap - with the employee's consent - for overtime and for work on days off. It does not name state holidays or public holidays. If holiday work goes beyond the monthly working-time norm, however, Article 69 (part four) gives the employee the right to request an additional unpaid day off on top of, not instead of, the extra payment. Easter works differently, as noted above: a scheduled Easter shift carries ordinary-working-day pay.

Employers who breach these rules face fines under Article 10.12 of the Code of Administrative Offences. At the base unit of BYN 45 in force from 1 January 2026, the ranges are:

• Non-payment or incomplete payment of wages by the due date: 4 to 50 base units (BYN 180 to BYN 2,250)
• Repeating that offence within a year of a previous penalty: 30 to 100 base units (BYN 1,350 to BYN 4,500)
• Breaching rules on working time, rest periods or the procedure for granting leave: 2 to 20 base units (BYN 90 to BYN 900)

These amounts shift whenever the Council of Ministers revises the base unit, so the BYN figures above reflect the 2026 rate. If you are rostered for a holiday shift, it is worth calculating from your gross salary what the premium actually adds to your net pay. Checking how that salary sits against what others in the same role earn across Belarus gives you a clearer picture before any negotiation. Retail, healthcare, hospitality and transport are the sectors where holiday rostering is most routine.

Other leave you can lean on

Article 155 of the Labour Code sets the basic annual leave minimum at 24 calendar days, and every employer is bound by that floor. Article 151 counts leave in calendar days, meaning Saturdays and Sundays within a leave block count against your allowance. State holidays inside the block do not count as leave days and are not paid as leave - which is why short blocks booked Monday to Friday around a holiday go furthest.

• Family events (Article 190): for the birth of a child, a marriage registration or the death of a close relative, up to three paid calendar days per event may be granted if your collective agreement, a local legal act or your employer makes that provision. It is not an automatic statutory entitlement; check your collective agreement.
• Unpaid leave for family and household reasons (Article 190): on written application, up to 30 calendar days per year. A collective agreement can allow more, with the total not exceeding three calendar months.
• Unpaid leave the employer must grant (Article 189): certain groups may claim up to 14 calendar days on request. These include women with two or more children under fourteen or a disabled child under eighteen, and employees caring for a sick family member under a medical certificate.

Bridge plans: six ways to stretch your leave in 2027

Book leave on weekdays only and let the holidays and weekends fill the gaps. Each plan below lists the leave days so you can count the cost against your annual allowance. Leave arithmetic uses Article 151: state holidays inside the block are not charged as leave.

1. Year-end bridge, starting in Q4 2026. Catholic Christmas (Friday 25 December 2026) plus the weekend plus leave on Monday 28, Tuesday 29, Wednesday 30 and Thursday 31 December, then New Year (Friday 1 January and Saturday 2 January) plus Sunday 3 January gives 10 days off in a row (Friday 25 December to Sunday 3 January) for 4 leave days.
2. New Year without leave. Friday 1 January plus Saturday 2 January plus Sunday 3 January gives 3 days off for 0 leave days.
3. Orthodox Christmas long weekend. Thursday 7 January plus leave on Friday 8 January plus the weekend of 9 and 10 January gives 4 days off for 1 leave day.
4. The full January break. Friday 1 January to Sunday 10 January, with leave on Monday 4, Tuesday 5, Wednesday 6 and Friday 8 January gives 10 days off for 4 leave days. Thursday 7 January is a holiday and so does not count as a leave day under Article 151.
5. Women's Day week. Saturday 6 to Monday 8 March is a free three-day weekend. Adding leave on Tuesday 9, Wednesday 10, Thursday 11 and Friday 12 March produces 9 days off (Saturday 6 to Sunday 14 March) for 4 leave days.
6. Victory Day and Radunitsa. Sunday 9 May plus the transferred Monday 10 May plus Radunitsa on Tuesday 11 May is a free three-day break. Adding leave on Wednesday 12, Thursday 13 and Friday 14 May gives 8 days off (Sunday 9 to Sunday 16 May) for 3 leave days. Bear in mind that Saturday 8 May is a working day for standard Monday-to-Friday staff under Resolution No. 499 (unless your employer has moved it to another Saturday).

After 11 May the 2027 calendar offers no further weekday holidays for five-day-week staff. Independence Day, October Revolution Day and Catholic Christmas all fall on weekends. Q3 and Q4 2027 provide no ready-made long weekends for the standard working pattern.

Before you book

With a working-time norm of 2,050 hours and only five weekday days off, the January, March and May windows are worth securing early in your leave plan. Check your employer's internal order on whether the working Saturday is set at 8 May or moved to a different Saturday - that detail affects the May bridge calculation directly.

If a job change is on your mind, the quieter weeks around these breaks are a practical time to refresh your CV and review open roles without the usual pace. When evaluating an offer, it is worth asking how the employer handles rostering on public holidays and what, if anything, it offers beyond the Article 69 statutory minimum. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection's confirmed calendar and the Labour Code's leave rules give you a clear baseline for that conversation.