British workers should get more bank holidays to bring the country into line with its European counterparts.
That is according to TUC, who said there should be another four bank holidays to bring the UK up to the EU average of 12 a year.
The August bank holiday was the last until Christmas, so employees will have to wait four months to enjoy another statutory day off.
Workers in Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland and Cyprus are entitled to 15 bank holidays a year, almost twice as many as in the UK, said the union organisation.
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "As new technology changes our economy, the benefits should be shared by working people. That means less time at work, more time with family and friends, and decent pay for everyone.
"But, instead, work is becoming more intense. Workers in Britain put in millions of hours of unpaid overtime every year but get fewer public holidays than their counterparts across Europe.
"Working people deserve a break and, as the days start to get shorter, we could all do with something to look forward to.
"The Government should create a new public holiday between now and Christmas."
The TUC demand mirrors a suggestion from New Economics Foundation, which has called for more paid holiday to address stagnating productivity rates.
Its report said that, up to 2008, labour productivity grew at an average of more than two per cent annually. However, since the end of the 2009 recession, that has dipped to an average of about 0.7 per cent.
A UK government business department spokesman said: "We regularly receive requests for additional bank and public holidays to commemorate a variety of occasions, such as cultural, history, military and religious events and we consider them on a case-by-case basis.
"We have no current plans to add to the well established and acknowledged bank holidays already in place, but next year's early May bank holiday will be on May 8 to ensure as many people as possible can mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day."
