Outside of obligations imposed by the FMLA and the USERRA, there is no general federal requirement that employers provide leave to their employees. That said, most employers provide a host of leave rights to their employees, including, for example, leave for personal reasons, illness or injury, disability, bereavement and education.
Likewise, in most instances, the decision to allow employees to take off for holidays is at an employer’s discretion. To the extent that an employer provides holidays to its employees, there is no universal rule regarding which holidays the employer should observe. Rather, the decision to provide leave entitlement and holidays should be made on a case-by-case basis.