Nicaraguan state workers will receive 16 days off for this Christmas and New Year Holidays including the two seasonal holiday days.
State Workers
Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the state workers holidays for Christmas and New Year, declaring that for them, their last working day will be Friday 22nd of December 2023 and they will not be required to return until Monday 8th of January 2024.
In accordance with Article 69 of the Labor Code, essential services (e.g. government departments that due to the nature of their work, or services provided, can’t be interrupted) will remain open.
The Christmas holidays official announcement from the Minister of Labor, Alba Luz Torres can be found on the MITRAB official website, click here.
Private Sector
For the private sector, Monday the 25th of December 2023 and Monday the 1st of January 2024 will be Statutory Holidays or “Feriados”.
Under the Labor Code, employees that are required to work on those days “must be paid an additional 100% of the usual day’s pay”. This includes; “businesses affected by the agricultural cycle, different economic activities and the social and security of the country”.
Also under the same code, when an employer requests that an employee works on a statutory holiday, the employee may choose to be compensated with another day off instead of the additional pay stated above. Note; if they are then subsequently asked to work on that agreed day of in lieu, they will be paid as if it was a worked statutory holiday.
Since the recent addition of Mother’s Day as an official statutory holiday, there are now a total of ten (10) statutory holidays per year;
1st January, New Year’s Day,
Thursday and Friday of Easter Week,
May 1st, International Workers’ Day,
May 30th, Mother’s Day,
July 19th, Day of the Revolution,
September 14th, Battle of San Jacinto,
September 15th, Independence Day,
December 8th, La Purísima and;
December 25th, Christmas Day
