When Jörg Abel plans his vacation days, the week around Shrove Monday is firmly anchored in the schedule. The 48-year-old works full-time for a health insurance company in Frankfurt am Main, he is a passionate carnival fan on a voluntary basis – not only in the hot phase: he has been active in the Mainzer Carneval-Verein (MCV) since 2015 and has been secretary on the board since September 2022 .
There’s more to volunteering than just celebrations and confetti. The MCV is the oldest carnival club in Mainz, organizes the Mainz Rose Monday procession and, together with other clubs, the well-known carnival session “Mainz remains Mainz, as it sings and laughs”. Abel himself is involved in the well-known floats for the parade, and since the board elections there have also been regular board meetings for him. “It was quite demanding, considering that we meet at 7 p.m. in the evening and often don’t finish until around midnight,” he says. However, his job always has priority: “None of us took time off for it. You do that in the evenings in your free time.”
The fact that working revelers and jesters like Jörg Abel have to take vacation if they want to celebrate the highlight of the “fifth season” is more the rule than the exception nationwide. Because Shrove Monday is not a public holiday – not even in the carnival strongholds, where it is considered a “traditional day”. “The term has no legal meaning and, unlike a holiday, is not a day on which the employee can simply stay at home,” explains Volker Görzel, who works as a specialist lawyer for labor law in Cologne. In Cologne and Mainz it is common for most employers to voluntarily release their employees on Shrove Monday. However, employees do not have a fundamental right to this.
“The operational process must not be disturbed by costumes”
The situation is different when the boss regularly and without reservation gives his employees a day off on Shrove Monday. The rule of thumb is: If this happens at least three years in a row, a so-called “company exercise” is created – and the employees can count on being released at carnival in the future without having to sacrifice a day of vacation.
This customary law also applies to new employees and cannot be easily revoked, even after a change in management. The fact that in the past two years, as an exception, work was also carried out on Shrove Monday because the carnival was canceled due to the pandemic, is not significant: “Corona did not interrupt this operational exercise,” says Görzel. Anyone who was regularly free on Shrove Monday before the pandemic could count on it again this year.
However, the operational practice does not automatically apply to all company locations. For example, it is permitted for employees in Mainz to have the day off on Shrove Monday while colleagues in Hamburg have to work – similar to public holidays that are only observed in certain federal states. This is particularly relevant for companies that have their headquarters in one of the carnival strongholds but operate nationwide. Because while the carnival regions are in a state of emergency, business continues elsewhere.
Friedrich Pautasso explains that preparation is necessary to ensure that everything runs smoothly: He heads the HR department of the insurance group Gothaer, which has its headquarters in Cologne with around 3,000 employees, but also operates locations in other cities. While the Cologne workforce is mostly free, everyday work in Berlin or Hamburg continues undeterred. “Not everyone is a carnival enthusiast. Colleagues who want to work here in Cologne can do so,” says Pautasso. The company depends on them and on the employees at the external locations so that the volume of calls to customer service can be managed. Experience from previous years shows how many employees are needed on the carnival days. “It’s a well-established process,” says Pautasso. “The queries within the customer service units run early: who wants to celebrate carnival and who doesn’t?” If necessary, external service providers can be used.
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