When does your holiday entitlement expire?
This is an important question for many employees - the ECJ has now decided in the interests of the employees.
All employees are entitled to a holiday to relax.
But sometimes vacation cannot be taken from the company's point of view or the employees are sick - vacation then accumulates.
It may then become statute-barred.
In a recent judgment, the European Court of Justice has now strengthened the rights of employees.
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The employer must draw your attention to this should your holiday expire.
© Andrey Popov/Imago
Statute of limitations on vacation: Under certain circumstances, vacation can be taken into March of the following year
The Federal Holidays Act regulates how employees in Germany can take their holidays.
For example, it states the circumstances under which vacation can be carried over to the next calendar year:
Vacation must be granted and taken in the current calendar year.
Vacation leave may only be carried over to the next calendar year if there are urgent operational reasons or personal reasons for the employee to justify it.
In the event of a transfer, leave must be granted and taken within the first three months of the following calendar year.
However, at the request of the employee, partial leave accruing according to Section 5 (1) (a) must be carried over to the next calendar year.
Federal Holidays Act, Section 7, Paragraph 3
If leave is not taken then, it will be forfeited.
In an earlier judgment (November 2018), the ECJ decided that employers must inform employees about an imminent expiry of holiday entitlements, as reported by the
Tagesschau
.
This is confirmed and broadened in the current judgment.
The decisive factor for a possible statute of limitations is whether the employer has fulfilled his obligation and has pointed out that the vacation will soon expire.
In two example cases, the companies did not do this sufficiently.
So the ECJ decided that the remaining leave of a vacation year does not expire in the event of illness or reduced earning capacity of the employee.
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Current cases of the statute of limitations on vacation
The two cases heard before the ECJ concerned a severely disabled employee and an employee who still had 14 days of vacation left due to a long illness.
The severely disabled employee was unable to take all of his holiday entitlement due to a full reduction in earning capacity.
The respective employers were of the opinion that the holiday entitlement had expired.
Because if an employee is unable to take vacation due to illness, this entitlement would be lost after 15 months without compensation.
This is currently the status of German law.
The plaintiffs countered that the employers should have informed them that the vacation was forfeiting.
This did not happen, so the claim still exists.
The ECJ basically agreed.
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A labor court will clarify the statute of limitations
However, even with this judgment there are still gaps in terms of the statute of limitations on vacation entitlement.
When and how often employers have to point out an impending loss of vacation days was not discussed.
The judgment only covers the holiday entitlement in the year in which the employees worked.
The Federal Labor Court (BAG) will decide on the two cases in December.
Rubric list image: © Andrey Popov/Imago
