Company holidays: when can bosses order holidays?

Created: 12/13/2021, 3:58 PM

From: Andrea Stettner

Many companies have company holidays at Christmas.

Are employers allowed to arrange vacation just like that?

© Patrick Pleul / dpa

Company holidays are common in many companies between Christmas and New Year.

But are bosses allowed to arrange vacations just like that?

According to the Federal Vacation Act, companies must take the employee's vacation wishes into account when planning vacation * - unless “urgent operational issues” preclude this.

Employees usually have to accept company holidays

Whether company holidays are "urgent operational issues" is actually a matter of interpretation.

In most cases, however, this is assessed, says Johannes Schipp, specialist lawyer for labor law: "The few case law that exists on the subject says that the

" Schipp told the German Press agency (dpa).

So if the employer orders company holidays, the vacation requests of the employees have to take a back seat.

Even if the company has a works council that can have a say in vacation planning.

Also read:

Employers must announce and give good reasons for company vacation

The employer has the company holiday but with a certain lead time

, so workers can plan their holiday - "as possible at the beginning of the leave year," says Attorney Tobias Werner in conversation with the editorial network Germany (RND).

In addition, company holidays must be well justified by the company.

“From a labor law perspective, a short-term lack of orders or a drop in sales are not operational issues in this context.

Because the

”says Werner.

Disturbances in the operational process, such as a broken machine, are also not included.  

How many days of company vacation are allowed per year?

But for how many vacation days can the employer stipulate company holidays? Although there is no clear jurisprudence on this, Schipp believes that it is entirely permissible to

the

The only thing the employer has to do here is to ensure that the legally prescribed minimum vacation is granted continuously, i.e. at least 12 days in a row. "For example, if it is about seasonal business, that could be around three weeks of company vacation during the summer vacation and one week between Christmas and New Year," says Schipp. Specialist lawyer Werner, on the other hand, refers to the rule of thumb

as a benchmark, after many labor courts have been judged so far.

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