It may be the weather that is making it hard for some office workers to stay focused right now. Their thoughts would much rather travel to a place where the day is not dictated by a computer, a telephone or the diary, but by the weather, the tides or the needs of their own body and mind. Summer is traditionally also holiday season, and with the approaching school holidays comes the time parents get to spend with their children.
Contents
Planning
To make sure everything runs smoothly, it’s best to plan well in advance. After all, the first step towards carefree summer days is always the step towards the boss’s office – because your manager has to approve your holiday. In some companies, a holiday planning meeting at the start of the year helps ensure that colleagues’ needs don’t clash. Especially when more than half of the workforce have children, the school holidays are traditionally the peak period for holiday requests. In a meeting like this, compromises can be reached directly – along the lines of: “You take Whitsun, I’ll take Easter.”
To the island with your briefcase?
It has become part of everyday life for more and more employees to pack a few file folders along with their swimwear. There’s even a desk in the hotel room. But that’s not how it is intended, as a look at the Federal Leave Act (BUrlG for short) reveals. Broadly speaking, it defines holiday as doing nothing – and that all day long. “A holiday should serve the purpose of rest and be used to maintain your ability to work,” says lawyer Simone Weber. The legal expert runs a law firm at Sendlinger Tor in Munich – employment law is one of her specialist areas.
Maintaining employees’ ability to work is something the legislator considers worthy of protection. That is why, in principle, all employees, including trainees and part-time staff, are legally entitled to paid annual leave. Of course, employees cannot decide for themselves when to go on holiday, but must submit a request to their employer and have it approved. “Under no circumstances may an employee put themselves on leave. If an employee takes holiday without authorisation, they are in breach of their contractual duties and must expect consequences under employment law, which may even extend to summary dismissal,” explains Simone Weber.
Rules also apply to the employer. They cannot approve or refuse leave at their own discretion, but must also comply with the applicable law. “Section 7 (1) of the Federal Leave Act states that employers must take the employee’s leave requests into account.” Of course, under certain conditions they may also refuse a leave request: “If urgent operational reasons stand in the way, such as a heavy workload due to a new order, a high level of sick leave in the department, or if it conflicts with the leave requests of other employees,” says the expert. “In the case of conflicting leave requests, the employer must weigh the social circumstances of both employees against each other, for example higher age, length of service, school-age children, need for recovery, employed spouses. The employee who is more socially deserving of protection is then generally given priority with regard to their leave request.” In principle, managers must also decide promptly on their employees’ leave requests and bear in mind that leave should be granted as one continuous period.
How much leave are employees entitled to?
The United Services Trade Union “Ver.di” provides an overview on its website of who is entitled to how much leave. “The statutory minimum leave entitlement is 24 working days per calendar year for adults throughout Germany, regardless of age,” it says there. “This corresponds to four weeks, since working days are all calendar days that are not Sundays or public holidays.” Ver.di points out, however, that the average collectively agreed leave entitlement today is already six weeks. According to this, marginal part-time employees are also entitled to leave – in proportion to their working hours. “For each full month of the employment relationship, the employee is entitled to one twelfth of the annual leave,” the union’s website states.
Simone Weber can explain it in more detail – and she also has an example ready. “The statutory minimum leave is 24 working days. Working days here are all days that are not Sundays or public holidays.” So, when referring to 24 working days, the Federal Leave Act assumes that the employee works from Monday to Saturday, i.e. has a six-day week. If the employee only has a five-day week, Monday to Friday, then the minimum leave of 24 days must be reduced accordingly.” Simone Weber breaks it down: “24 working days divided by 6 working days = 20 days of leave.” Applied in the same way, this calculation results in the following table:
- Six-day week: 24 working days' holiday
- Five-day week: 20 working days' holiday
- Four-day week: 16 working days' holiday
- Three-day week: 12 working days' holiday
- Two-day week: 8 working days' holiday
- One working day per week: 4 working days' holiday per year
There is one interesting detail to note here: it makes absolutely no difference whether an employee works four, eight or ten hours a day. “For holiday entitlement, what matters is the number of working days per week, not the number of hours worked per day,” explains lawyer Simone Weber. “Anyone who works five days a week, even if it is only five hours a day, is still entitled to 20 working days' holiday, just like an employee who works eight hours a day in an office chair.”
With flexible working hours, meaning that the employee works five days in one week, only two days in the next, then not at all for a week and only three days in the following week, the working time must be calculated over a longer period; if necessary, even over the entire working year. According to Simone Weber, the holiday entitlement is then calculated as follows: “If your regular working time is spread over a period that does not correspond to a calendar week, the statutory or collectively agreed full-time holiday entitlement is used as the basis. For a six-day week, the statutory entitlement is 24 working days' holiday. These 24 working days are divided by the annual number of working days of 312 days (52 weeks x 6 working days). This gives a factor of 0.0769. This factor must then be multiplied by the actual number of days you are required to work. So if, for example, you have worked 80 days ( 80 x 0.0769), this results in a holiday entitlement of 6.15 days per year.”
Young people and the severely disabled
Incidentally, special rules apply to young people and the severely disabled. Anyone who has not yet reached the age of 16 at the beginning of a calendar year is entitled to at least 30 days' holiday. At 17, this is 27 days' holiday, and at 18, 25. According to the law, employees with a severe disability are entitled to one additional paid day of holiday per year for each working day per week. For a 5-day week, this means five extra days' holiday per year; for a six-day week, six days' holiday.
Here you will find ergonomic office furniture.