The Ministry of Labour has prepared a draft holiday calendar. The document has been put up for public discussion. Some business representatives do not support lengthy holidays, believing that more than ten days of rest is detrimental to work.
The Ministry of Labour of Russia has presented a draft calendar of holidays and weekends for 2026. According to the document, the New Year holidays will last for 12 days – from December 31st to January 11th.
In 2026, the May holidays will be shorter than this year, lasting three days each: from May 1st to 3rd and from May 9th to 11th. Three-day holidays are also planned for February (February 21st-23rd) and March (March 7th-9th).
We asked business representatives how they view the idea of long New Year holidays and whether it might be better to shorten them in favour of May holidays.
We are calm about it because cows are milked every day, milk also comes for processing every day. All our main productions – dairy products, condensed milk, and even ice cream – do not stop on New Year`s Eve. So we work around the clock. Of course, we compensate people for working on weekends, and we also come to the plant non-stop.
In December, you`ll have to compensate more.
That`s how it turns out – it doesn`t matter when the holidays are, the total number during the year doesn`t change. During the New Year holidays, we note a tendency for people to consume less dairy. After January 4th, people gradually start returning: more kefir, more sour cream, more milk.
For us, the May holidays are peak season, the highest sales point, so everyone works throughout the May holidays, especially in production. Therefore, there are no holidays for us in May. In January, we start preparing for the season – people rest for three or four days, and then they return to work. Regarding the trend, orders drop during holidays, this is for our B2C direction. For B2B, it`s very bad that the sales manager department won`t work for half a month in January. This will cause a significant slump, and we`ll need to plan ahead for how we`ll pay rent, salaries, and other payments. I have a negative attitude towards such long holidays because it`s very difficult for everyone to get back into the swing of things. People come back and, roughly speaking, can`t remember their computer password.
Both long weekends and long May holidays cause significant damage to the country`s economy. Especially the May ones are «great». Labour Day, in my opinion, should be celebrated by working, not by having days off. In our company, the employee schedule both depends and doesn`t depend on weekends. We have production that operates anyway, though not always at full capacity. We have retail that operates anyway. We let the office staff off, they have their own schedule. All our partners disappear, all our customers disappear. We lose a lot of revenue, and we are forced to either build up cash reserves in accounts or resort to borrowing. Revenue in both January and May is always unpredictable, which also imposes major negative aspects on financial planning, on production planning. I always disliked and still dislike such long weekends because they severely disrupt the rhythm of the economy.
According to a poll conducted among our readers, the majority (more than half) would prefer longer breaks in spring rather than at the beginning of the year. A quarter of respondents like long New Year holidays, and roughly the same number (23%) stated that their work schedule does not depend on the official holiday calendar.
