Campaign aims for rise in holidays

With British workers receiving fewer public holidays than any other country in the European Union - including all the new EU member states - the TUC has launched a national search for a new bank holiday.

Anyone can vote in the "Bank Holiday Idol" ballot on the TUC's Worksmart website. Choices include the national saints' days of England, Scotland and Wales, International Women's Day (8 March) and a Monday in October to break up the long gap between August bank holiday and Christmas.

Slovakia is now the best country in the European Union for days off, with 18 public holidays a year - more than twice Britain's scant eight days.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, said: "We work the longest hours, and have the fewest public holidays. It's about time we caught up with the rest of Europe in the holiday stakes."

The vote is being conducted at www.worksmart.org.uk/holiday