Christmas holidays

[Genghis]

Hi all, I am due to arrive in late October for a position in construction. My wife will be coming out to visit so I am wondering if there are national holidays and if there is an industry "shut-down"?
Thanks.

[Maz25]

Christmas shutdown?? No, there is no such thing here! Mind you, even in the UK, I had to use my annual leave during the so-called Xmas shutdown! There are public holidays. We get 3 days for Eid at the end of Ramadan; there are also a few days in December as well as New Year's Day. Xmas is not generally a holiday here; some Western firms might give you the day off but you might actualy have to book it off as annual leave! Construction is 24/7 here and we would be so lucky to get a shut down period - not likely to happen anytime soon!

[White Heat]

Depending on who you work for, you may be entitled to one religious holiday per year. In my company most westerners take Christmas day as a religious day (either that or Easter Sunday).

[kelly1814]

completely depends who you work for. my company is christian-owned so we get christmas day. howvere my partner has to take a day's holiday to get christmas day off.

[alli]

Agree with what everyone else says... there are Islamic public holidays in abundance, but there are no official christian days.

[Genghis]

Thanks for the info guys.