Automatic Holiday Detection
Germany's public holidays vary by federal state (Bundesland). KiDig automatically determines which holidays apply based on the federal state setting configured for your facility.
For example, Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi) is a public holiday in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland -- but not in the northern states. KiDig handles these differences automatically.
Configuring the Federal State
- Go to Facility Settings.
- Under Location, select the correct federal state from the dropdown.
- Save. KiDig recalculates all affected days for the current year.
Important: Changing the federal state retroactively affects all past and future holiday calculations for the year. Double-check before making changes.
How Public Holidays Affect Time Calculation
When a day is a public holiday:
- The employee's daily target hours are credited automatically. The day counts as if the employee worked their full target.
- No time entry is required. The keyword "Public Holiday" is set automatically.
- The day does not count as a vacation day.
- If the employee actually works on a public holiday, time additions (surcharges) may apply (see the Time Additions article).
Standard Public Holidays
The following holidays apply nationwide in all 16 federal states:
| Holiday | Date |
|---|---|
| New Year's Day (Neujahr) | January 1 |
| Good Friday (Karfreitag) | Variable |
| Easter Monday (Ostermontag) | Variable |
| Labour Day (Tag der Arbeit) | May 1 |
| Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) | Variable |
| Whit Monday (Pfingstmontag) | Variable |
| Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) | October 3 |
| Christmas Day (1. Weihnachtstag) | December 25 |
| Boxing Day (2. Weihnachtstag) | December 26 |
Additional state-specific holidays (Epiphany, Corpus Christi, Assumption Day, Reformation Day, All Saints' Day) are applied automatically based on your federal state.
December 24 and December 31
These two dates receive special treatment in KiDig because they are not official public holidays in most states but are commonly treated as non-working days in Kita collective agreements:
- Configuration option: In Tariff Settings, you can mark December 24 and/or December 31 as equivalent to public holidays.
- When enabled, these days behave like public holidays: target hours are credited and no time entry is required.
- If not enabled, they are treated as regular workdays (and typically appear as facility closed days instead, consuming a vacation day).
- Surcharge rates: Work performed on December 24 or 31 (from 6 AM) qualifies for the 35% surcharge under TVöD 8.1, regardless of whether the day is configured as a holiday.
Additional Feast Days
Some facilities, particularly those run by church organisations (kirchliche Träger), observe additional days that are not state-level public holidays. Examples include:
- Reformation Day (in states where it is not already a public holiday)
- Buß- und Bettag (Day of Repentance and Prayer)
KiDig allows admins to add these as custom holidays in the facility settings. Custom holidays behave identically to automatic public holidays for calculation purposes.
Tips
- Verify your federal state after initial setup. An incorrect setting causes all state-specific holidays to be wrong.
- Part-time staff: Public holidays only affect employees whose contracted workdays include the holiday. A Monday holiday has no effect on an employee who only works Wednesday through Friday.
- Public holidays that fall on a weekend have no effect on time calculations, as the day is already a non-workday.