Taking vacation days in advance – understand the rules

If you want to take a vacation day in advance – i.e. use some of the vacation days you accrue in the following holiday year or the following months – you must be aware of several conditions. For example, you must agree with your employer before you take vacation days in advance, and the number of days you are allowed to take in advance depends on the current time of the holiday year. In the month of August, you will e.g. be able to take 2.08 days in advance, while in September you will only be able to take 24.96 days in advance. You can learn more about the rules here in the blog post.

Remember to agree on vacation days in advance

Vacation days in advance must be agreed between employer and employee. According to the new Holiday Act, it is not possible for either the employee or the employer to demand or impose that the employee takes vacation days in advance.

With the new Holiday Act, the holiday year runs from the 1st of September to the 31st of August the following year. The law states that the employer may allow the employee a maximum of the number of vacation days/hours in advance that can be earned in the current holiday year. This is stated in Chapter 2 §7 on the Agreement on taking paid holiday in advance in the Holiday Act:

“If an employer and an employee have agreed that the employee can take paid vacation days at a time when it has not yet been earned, the holiday thus taken is deducted from the right to paid vacation days, which is then earned in the relevant holiday year. (…)”

What does the rule mean in practice?

In practice, the rule means that there is a big difference in how many vacation days an employee is entitled to take in advance. The number depends on the time of the year. For example, if you are in the month of July and dream of an extra long summer holiday of 5 days in addition to what you have earned, you can only take an advance of 4.16 days from the current holiday year. If, on the other hand, you are in the month of February and want an extra long winter holiday, you can take a full 14.56 vacation days in advance from the current holiday year, without having to pay for some of the days yourself.

Does the rule make sense?

Here at Intempus, we wonder why the number of vacation days an employee is allowed to take in advance must depend on the time of the holiday year. As described above, as an employee who has to resign from his or her position, the previously taken vacation days will be set off against the salary owed and the holiday allowance. Therefore, it does not put the company at a financial disadvantage if, for example, the employee is allowed to take more than 2.08 holiday days in advance in August. Instead, repealing the rule would simply remove the restriction for employees regarding when in the year it is possible to take a longer holiday. We contacted FerieKonto for an explanation of the rule, but their reply simply referred to the provision itself that only the holiday that the employee can manage to earn in the remaining part of the current holiday year can be granted.

Keep track of holidays

Our user-friendly time registration system, Intempus, makes it easier than ever to keep track of employees’ vacation days. The employee simply registers their vacation days in the Intempus App, where they and the administrator can also continuously keep track of how many they have earned and used. If the employee takes vacation days in advance, the system can be configured to show the employee’s vacation balances in red, so that you can always keep an overview of accrued and used vacation days – including those you have taken in advance.

Are you interested in hearing more about how Intempus can make the working day easier for your company in particular? Then give us a call on: +45 26390400 or book a free and non-binding demo here:

Source: The Holiday Act, Chapter 2  §7