An employee shall be entitled to annual leave of at least 28 calendar days per calendar year. Minors, employees with partial or incapacitated ability to work, and education staff shall be entitled to extended annual leave. In addition, the length of the leave may be longer depending on the applicable collective agreement or agreement between the parties.
The annual vacation is given for the time worked. The vacation must be used during a calendar year – thus, the period for vacation calculation is one calendar year (from January 1st until December 31st). The employer is not prohibited to give vacation in advance. For instance, an employee could have the entire annual vacation in summer.
On the first year of employment, the employee is entitled for a vacation after working at least six months for the employer. In this case, the vacation duration corresponds to the length of employment.
The employer is obliged to grant leave to the following persons at the time requested by the employee:
- women immediately before and after maternity leave and the other parent during the woman’s maternity leave;
- parents immediately after parental leave;
- a parent raising a child of up to seven years of age;
- a parent raising a child of seven to ten years of age – during the child’s school holidays;
- a minor subject to the obligation to attend school – during school holidays.
If the holidays have not been used upon the termination of an employment contract or a service relationship, the employer shall pay the employee monetary compensation for unused holidays, but for not more than a total of four years’ unused holidays.
Annual leave
The period of annual leave shall be taken into account by the employer taking into account the wishes of the employee. The employer also draws up a holiday schedule. The duration of the annual leave must be specified in the contract of employment; the general period of leave is 28 calendar days. Calendar day means all days from Monday to Sunday. Minors and workers with partial or no working capacity shall be entitled to 35 calendar days of annual leave. The annual holiday of educational staff is up to 56 calendar days. The Government of the Republic shall establish by a regulation a list of positions of educational staff where the annual holiday is up to 56 calendar days, and the duration of holiday by positions. Annual leave may be split, if both Parties so agree, in which case at least one period of leave shall be for 14 consecutive calendar days. Employers have the right to refuse leave of less than 7 days.
The leave shall be granted for the calendar year of empoyment during the year and shall not include periods of parental leave or unpaid leave (formerly unpaid leave). The holiday schedule is due by March 31st. The schedule must list all available vacations. The period of leave shall expire in one year (the limitation period shall be suspended during maternity, parental and military service). The employer pays the employee holiday pay for the period of annual leave.
Holiday without pay
Holiday without pay may be granted only by agreement of an employer and an employee. Unpaid leave may be proposed by either party. There is no formal requirement for formalizing a holiday without pay. During unpaid leave, the employment contract is suspended.
Unpaid parental leave
Parents raising a child up to 14 years of age, or a parent of a child with special needs up to the age of 18, is entitled for up to 10 unpaid workdays of parental leave each year. The right for the parental leave also applies to a child’s guardian or person with whom the family has concluded a caregiving contract.
Academic leave
The employee is entitled to up to 30 calendar days of academic leave per year for attending trainings. For degree and job-related trainings, the employer must pay the medium daily remuneration to the employee for 20 calendar days. The employee is free to use the unpaid leave to cover the remaining 10 calendar days. To finish degree studies, the employee is given an additional 15 calendar days of academic leave, compensated with the minimum salary.
An employee has the right to holiday without pay in order to take entrance examinations for a vocational school, college or university.
Paid care leave for the caregiver of a disabled person
From 1 July 2018, a relative or appointed caregiver of an adult person with a profound disability has the right for an extra five paid workdays of care leave per year in addition to their annual leave. The unused days of leave cannot be transferred to the next year.
People with the right to receive leave from their employer:
- A spouse or registered domestic partner (as defined in the Registered Partnership Act);
- an adult relative (parent, grandparent, sister, brother, child, or grandchild); or
- a guardian or a caregiver appointed by the local government of an adult with a profound disability.
To use the days of leave, you have to submit an application to your employer.
The payment of the leave is calculated and paid by the employer.
Child care leave
Both parents will be granted child care leave separately and on a child-by-child basis – both parent may use 10 days of child care leave per child (a total of 20 days) until the child reaches the age of 14. The leave is not granted on annual basis – all days of leave are distributed over the period until the child reaches the age of 14.
For each day of child care leave, the state pays a benefit in the amount of 50% of the parent's previous average daily income, but not below the minimum wage. The amount of the benefit is calculated based on the average daily income, which is calculated based on the income earned during a period of 12 months before the third month preceding the use of the leave.
Child care leave can be taken separately for each child, but not more than 30 days a year in total.
Child leave for parents of a disabled child
If a child has been diagnosed with a disability, the parents are granted one day of child leave per month until the child reaches the age of 18. Parents are granted a total of 12 working days of leave per parent per calendar year.
If there are several disabled children in the family, a parent can take 12 days off for each disabled child.
Although the law does not provide for the possibility of aggregating days of leave and the primary purpose of the law is to enable a parent to regularly address the special needs of their disabled child, the law does not prohibit agreements that allow leave days to be aggregated and claimed retroactively during the calendar year.
The leave can only be taken during the current calendar year.
Compensation for retaining the average salary during breastfeeding breaks
It is possible to take extra breaks at work for breastfeeding. Average salary is retained during these breaks. Average salary is reimbursed to the employer if the parent does not receive parental benefit.
Additional breastfeeding breaks can be used after every 3 hours and with a duration of at least 30 minutes until the child turns one and a half. If the employee has two or more children under the age of 18 months, the additional break for feeding the children shall last for at least 1 hour.
In order to take additional breaks, an agreement must be concluded between the employee and the employer. Additional breaks are included in the working time of the employee.
Related articles
- Opportunities for parental leave
- Paternity leave and additional parental allowance
- Pregnancy and maternity leave
- Parental leave
- National, public and school holidays