In September 2020, we switched to a new holiday system, which has brought some changes to Danish employees' holiday entitlement and employers' processes. Are you up to date on the new holiday law and what it means for you and your workplace?
What were the changes to the Holiday Act?
When a new holiday law was introduced in 2020, it was especially beneficial for recent graduates. The law meant that they, like everyone else, now earn 2.08 holiday days from the first month of their employment.
The holiday system has moved from an accrual principle, where holidays were taken in advance, to a simultaneity principle, where holidays are accrued and taken at the same time within the holiday year. This means that everyone - graduate or not - can use their accrued holiday already from the following month. The holiday year now starts on 1 September instead of 1 May.
In addition, it is now possible for an employee to take holiday in advance - that is, without having earned the holiday yet - if this has been agreed with the employer.
This means, for example, that if Ulla wants to go to Australia for three weeks in January, where she has earned 8.32 holiday days, she can get the remaining holiday days in advance so she can still take three weeks of holiday. However, this is not something the employee is entitled to, but can be agreed between employee and employer.
What do you need to remember as an employee?
The advantage of the concurrency principle is that you will earn holiday on an ongoing basis and can therefore take holiday from the first month of employment. However, it also requires you as an employee to keep track of your holiday days - how many you have earned, used and have left.
The above is important because you should have taken your holiday before the holiday period ends. The holiday year runs from the beginning of September to the end of August the following year, but holidays can be taken during the holiday period from 1 September to 31 December the following year. This gives you 16 months to take your holiday.
You are entitled to five weeks of holiday during the holiday period from 1 September to 31 December the following year. This corresponds to 25 days of holiday. If you haven't earned paid holiday, you can take your holiday without pay or holiday pay. However, if you have accrued holiday days in the autumn that you have not taken, they must be taken before 31 December of the year in question.
You can have a maximum of 8.32 days left on the last day of the holiday year. If you have not taken any holidays, they will not be saved, but will lapse. The value of these is transferred to and managed by the Labour Market Holiday Fund.
What should you remember as an employer?
Employees have faster access to their holiday pay because they need to be able to take their holiday as they earn it. This means that there is a requirement for faster case processing and that you as an employer generally need to be a little more flexible and remember the important deadlines.
The deadline for reports and payments to Feriepengeinfo and Feriekonto follows the Holiday Act 1 September - 31 August. Here you must report all holidays for your employees - this applies to both employees with and without pay during holidays.
Keep track of your holidaye
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 you as an administrator can keep track of how many they have earned and used. The system can also ensure that the correct number of holiday days are transferred to the new holiday year if the employee has any (max 8.32 days) left over from the previous holiday year.
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:
