In terms of time off I know I have read that workers were better off BEFORE the communist take over. I think the same is true BEFORE the Reformation. The "reformers" simply destroyed much of medieval work culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The guilds lost their religious functions and then lost their point for being in general. That meant there was no longstanding organization to protect craftsmen. Holidays disappeared. Christmas became a workday in mid-seventeenth century England.
There is a book that goes into great detail on some of the economic ravages of the "Reformation" on the lower classes by William Cobbett, a Protestant writing in the early nineteenth century, called History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland. You can get a used copy through Amazon.com for under $14. New copies are about $22. The book is a real eye-opener.
I suspect that under a ridgid observation of church Holidays folks had more manditory time off than they do under the EU, and frankly with the church in charge of most social outreach (as opposed to a government department) they probably had a lot better attention to social needs.