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Vacation is important.
But how long can you stay away from work?
Photo: Michael Woerlen / EyeEm / Getty Images
Switching off from the stress of the office, caipirinha by the pool, time for loved ones: days off are important in order to recharge your own batteries.
But before employees sign a contract, they should know how many vacation days they are actually entitled to.
There is no uniform regulation - employers can design this quite freely.
Answers to the most important questions:
What is the minimum number of days of vacation?
Every employee in Germany is entitled to vacation.
This was set for the first time in the Federal Holiday Act (BUrlG) in 1963.
The statutory minimum vacation for a five-day week is 20 days, for a four-day week it is only 16 days.
However, that's only the lower limit.
"
In Germany it is customary to grant additional contractually agreed vacation days
"
, says the specialist lawyer for labor law Daniel Brügger.
What should I watch out for if I get sick while on vacation?
The planned vacation has long been approved by the boss, but suddenly and completely unexpectedly, the employee falls ill on his first day of vacation.
Recovery is out of the question under these circumstances.
"
In the event of illness while on vacation, the Federal Vacation Act provides that the days of illness that can be proven by a doctor's certificate cannot be counted towards the vacation,
"
says Brügger.
In other words: The vacation days are considered not to have been taken.
This also applies if the employee falls ill for a long time.
Measures of preventive medical care or rehabilitation may not be counted towards the vacation if, according to the statutory provisions, there is a right to continued payment of wages.
The employee may not be cut off vacation days even if he is on the cure.
What applies to parental leave?
Maternity leave has no effect on annual leave, but parental leave does.
In this way, the vacation entitlement can be reduced by one twelfth for every full month.
Should an employee take a break for twelve months without a break, the entire vacation
leave
can be canceled (see
Section
17, Paragraph 1 BEEG
).
“
However, only full calendar months count.
For example, if one of the parents takes parental leave from August 15 to September 15, this may not be reduced,
”
says the lawyer.
It is also important that the reduction must not be made automatically.
The employer must take action here and expressly explain the reduction.
What applies to short-time work?
In the corona crisis, many companies took advantage of short-time work.
In January, eight percent of the workforce was only partially working.
For those affected by
“
short-time work zero
”, there
is no vacation entitlement during short-time work.
Rather, the annual vacation is recalculated depending on the short-time working period.
A case study:
An employee's annual vacation entitlement is 20 days.
In the months of February and March,
“
zero short-time work
” will be
introduced.
In this case, the vacation entitlement is then 10/12 = 16.666 days, this is rounded up to 17 days according to the Federal Vacation Act.
If, however, vacation is granted during short-time work, it is to be remunerated in the same way as if there were no short-time work.
“
When short-time work and vacation coincide, numerous questions arise, especially those related to subsidy and social law, which need to be considered in individual cases,” says Brügger.
What applies to a termination?
The Federal Leave Act states that leave
must be taken
"
in nature" as long as the employment relationship still exists.
In some cases, however, the employee can no longer make use of his entitlement - for example, if the employment relationship has been terminated.
"In such a situation, the vacation must be paid for, which means that the employer has to pay it out," says the specialist lawyer.
If the employment relationship does not end until after June 30, the vacation entitlement may no longer be reduced.
What applies when changing jobs?
An employee takes their entire annual vacation in February and March - and changes employers a little later.
In this case, can he hope for more vacation days in the new job?
No, not really.
Because the Federal Holiday Act always wants to avoid double claims.
Proof is important here:
"For this purpose, the law stipulates that the old employer issues a certificate stating that vacation has been granted or paid for," says Brügger.
This means that the new employer does not have any new entitlement to the statutory minimum vacation.
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