If you want to take holiday in advance - i.e. use some of the holiday days you earn in the following holiday year or months - you need to be aware of a number of conditions. For example, you need to agree this with your employer and the number of holiday days you can take in advance depends on the time of the holiday year. For example, in August you can take 2.08 days in advance, while in September you can take 24.96 days in advance. Read this blog post to learn more about the rules.
Remember to book your holiday in advance
Holidays 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 holiday in advance.
With the new holiday law the holiday year runs from 1 September to 31 August the following year. The law states that the employer may grant the employee a maximum number of holiday days/hours in advance that can be earned in the current holiday year. This is stated in Chapter 2 §7 on Agreement on taking paid holiday in advance in the Holiday Act:
“If an employer and an employee have agreed that the employee may take paid holiday at a time when it has not yet been earned, the holiday thus taken shall be deducted from the right to paid holiday which is then earned in the holiday year concerned (...).”
What does the rule mean in practice?
In practice, the rule means that there is a big difference in how many days of holiday an employee is entitled to take in advance. The number depends on the time of year. For example, if you're in July and dreaming of an extra long summer holiday of 5 days in addition to what you've earned, you can only take 4.16 days in advance from the current holiday year. However, if you are in February and want an extra long winter holiday, you can take an advance of 14.56 days of holiday from the current holiday year without having to pay for any of the days yourself.
How much holiday can you take in advance in different months?
In the table below you can see how many holiday days you can take in advance in the different months of the current holiday year.
Are you resigning from your position but have used holiday in advance?
If you as an employee have taken holiday in advance but choose to resign or are fired, the holiday days you have taken in advance at the time of resignation will be deducted from your outstanding salary/holiday pay.
Does the rule make sense?
Here at Intempus, we wonder why the number of holiday days an employee is allowed to take in advance should depend on the time of the holiday year. As described above, an employee who is about to leave their position will still have the holiday days taken in advance deducted from the outstanding salary and holiday allowance. Therefore, it does not put the company at a financial disadvantage if, for example, you let the employee take more than 2.08 holiday days in advance in August. On the contrary, abolishing the rule would simply remove the restriction for employees in terms of when in the year it is possible to take a longer holiday. We contacted FerieKonto for an explanation of the rule, but in their response, they simply referred to the provision that only the holiday that the employee can earn in the remaining part of the current holiday year can be granted.
Keep track of your holiday days
Our user-friendly time tracking system, Intempus, makes it easier than ever to keep track of employee holidays. Employees simply register their holiday days in the Intempus App, where they and the administrator can keep track of how much they have earned and used. If the employee takes holiday in advance, the system can be set up to put the employee's holiday balance in minus, so you can always keep track of earned and used holiday days - even those taken in advance.
Interested in finding out more about how Intempus can make the workday easier for your organisation? Then give us a call at: +45 26390400 or book a free and non-binding demo here:
Sources: Holiday Act, Chapter 2 §7
