Labor law: No compensation for quarantine on vacation

Created: 07/04/2022 10:41 am

What to do if you unexpectedly have to go into quarantine on vacation, but should actually be lying on the beach?

Employees cannot automatically hope for compensatory days, as a court ruling shows.

© Christin Klose/dpa-tmn

Having to spend your vacation in quarantine is annoying.

Anyone who wants to have compensatory days must either hope that the employer will be accommodating or that judges will be understanding.

Anyone who has to be in quarantine during their vacation will not be credited with these days.

The quarantine is not comparable to being ill while on vacation.

The Working Group on Labor Law of the German Lawyers' Association (DAV) draws attention to a corresponding judgment by the State Labor Court of Schleswig-Holstein (AZ: 1 Sa 208/21).

A man who was on vacation from December 23 to 31, 2020 had complained.

Meanwhile, without being infected himself, he had to be in quarantine from December 21, 2020 to January 4, 2021 due to contact with a person suffering from Covid-19.

The employer did not credit the holiday.

Quarantine on vacation: Plaintiff insists on vacation entitlement

The plaintiff maintained that his holiday entitlement was still valid.

The quarantine period should be treated like an illness on vacation.

Employees are usually credited for sick days during vacation.

The quarantine at home represents a significant encroachment on his fundamental rights and is comparable to the restrictions in the case of “normal incapacity to work”.

With its judgment, the Regional Labor Court in Kiel confirmed the decision of the lower court: the rules for illness on vacation cannot be applied analogously to the quarantine period.

It was recognized by the highest court that the regulation on illness on vacation was an exception.

Anyone who is not ill, but only isolated, has no right to a credit for the vacation days.

But it remains exciting, since the regional labor courts do not decide uniformly here.

As in this case, appeals have been lodged against numerous decisions.